The purpose of this study was to develop a test of listening comprehension for kindergarten and beginning first grade and to establish the reliability and validity of the instrument. Parallel forms of the test were developed, each form consisting of six graded passages ranging in difficulty from grade 1 through grade 4, and 14 questions measuring…

This paper provides information concerning a technique for indexing internal processing during reading. The paper details three criteria necessary for a viable index, discusses techniques currently used for indexing reading behavior, and describes a technique known as "disruptive effect"--the degree to which the probability of occurrence…

Describes the benefits of cloze tests and content inventories as instruments for diagnosing reading ability. (DD)

Questions designed to measure inferential reading comprehension often measure prior knowledge and experience instead. (DD)

Conceptual or verbatim questions were placed either before or after an 800 word passage read by college students. Results show that conceptual prequestions produced higher recall than conceptual postquestions and verbatim prequestions yielded less recall than verbatim postquestions. (Author/DEP)

Examines the problems and advantages of two kinds of informal reading inventories: conventional and commercial. Considers the implications for teacher education. (JM)

Presents an overview of National Assessment studies. (JM) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Program Description (Progress Report).

The overlap between reading subtests of four individual achievement tests and five basal reading curricula for grades 1-5 were examined. Results showed that little overlap exists between what is taught and what is tested with degree of overlap varying considerably across tests and curricula. (Author/DB)

Presents an interactive view of reading assessment, which minimizes levels of comprehension and comprehension skills, focusing instead on readers' oral language, prior knowledge of the topic, and ability to reason, and emphasizes the teacher's role in gathering evaluative information. (MM)

Discusses, for the benefit of research workers and other test users, the ongoing controversy concerning the relative merits of conventional test theory and Rasch scaling in the construction of reading tests. Concludes that a great deal of further research is required to see whether these approaches are educationally valid. (JD)

Two studies examined the role of self-reference as a mnemonic for prose material. Prior to reading descriptive passages, undergraduate students received self-reference, other-reference, linguistic, or control processing instructions. Overall, the self-reference instructions resulted in the greatest amount of recall. (Author/LMO)

Reports on an analysis of two administrations of two reading tests--the first time without the reading passages and the second time with the passages--in order to determine the extent to which questions can be answered without reading the texts on which they are based. (SED)

Three studies involving elementary students examined methodological issues in curriculum-based reading assessment. Results indicated that (1) whereas sample duration did not affect concurrent validity, increasing duration reduced performance instability and increased performance slopes and (2) domain size was related inversely to performance slope…

Discusses the problems of overusing workbooks, dittos, and basal assessment tests in beginning reading instruction. Proposes alternatives. (FL)