Background and Aims: In educational measurement, performance assessments occupy a niche for offering a true-to-life format that affords the measurement of high-level cognitive competencies and the evidence to draw inferences about intellectual capital. However, true-to-life formats also introduce myriad complexities and can skew if not outright…

Objective: The present study examines the ability of children with ADHD to make inferences and monitor ongoing understanding of texts, to shed light on their academic difficulties. Method: A total of 29 boys with ADHD and 41 comparison boys between the ages of 7 and 12 participated. Three tasks measure how boys create and evaluate inferences,…

In this article, the authors proposed a distillation and matching model (DMM) that describes how evidence-based treatment operations can be conceptualized at a lower order level of analysis than simply by their manuals. Also referred to as the "common elements" approach, this model demonstrates the feasibility of coding and identifying the…

Highlights the types of inferences four students in grades 2-5 drew while constructing meaning from expository passages. Includes an analysis of their think alouds and recommendations for comprehension instruction. Explores what factors contribute to successful inferencing. Sheds new light on the range of strategies elementary grade students use…

Provides a rationale for using verbal protocols in discourse processing. Argues that readers construct a text representation and then use it to "tell a story" about their understanding--this story reveals important information about the processes involved in text comprehension as well as about constructing a message to be understood in a…

This study investigated how two readers of Mandarin with differing reading-proficiency skills interacted with a narrative passage, as well as what knowledge they brought to and made use of while reading the text. The perspectives of reading comprehension, transactional theory and social-cognitive models of reading served as this study's…

Two experiments investigated learning outcomes and comprehension processes when students learned about the heart and circulatory system using (a) text only, (b) text with simplified diagrams designed to highlight important structural relations, or (c) text with more detailed diagrams reflecting a more accurate representation. Experiment 1 found…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and other recent changes in federal legislation have placed greater emphasis on accountability in large-scale testing. Included in this emphasis are regulations that require assessments to be accessible. States are accountable for the success of all students, and tests should be designed in a way that…