More than 50,000 New York City special education students in self-contained classes and resource rooms in grades 2-9 were tested in reading on the California Achievement Test, Form C. Students who had testing modifications recommended on their individualized education programs were tested with the appropriate modification. Among the moderately…

Provides a detailed description of the "Diagnostic Reading Scales" which tests students' skills in word recognition, oral reading, rate of reading, silent reading, reading potential and other areas. (RB)

Supports the hypothesis that cloze measures the extent to which linguistic cues in the immediate environment of a missing word tend to supply meaning. (RB)

A survey of the results of studies of the "Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities" finds the test of limited predictive value. (RB)

A case is made for the use of "banding" as a method of assessing language progress. In a banding system, the range of language proficiency from beginner to native speaker is divided into bands, each one representing a distinct, discernible, and describable level of ability. Banding seems to be most useful in circumstances when the specific purpose…

Reading comprehension involves a number of distinctly different intellectual skills that can be assessed if the proper techniques are employed. As part of a reading assessment system, two measures of literal comprehension were developed: the Literal Comprehension Details Test (LCDT) and the Paraphrase Reading Test (PRT). Both the LCDT and the PRT…

To determine the state of the art in reading instruction for secondary level learning disabled (LD) students, a survey of 138 secondary LD teachers was conducted. Questionnaires were designed to obtain information on five practices and procedures: (1) the role responsibility for teaching reading, (2) reading assessment instruments, (3) commonly…

The effects of test anxiety on reading comprehension were studied in two experiments. In the first experiment, 75 college students completed a test anxiety scale and the McGraw-Hill Basic Skills System reading comprehension subtest. The low anxious students in this experiment showed higher reading comprehension than the high anxious students. In…

A RATIONALE FOR FITTING BOOKS TO THE PUPIL BASED ON BOTH PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE IS PRESENTED. THE GOAL OF PLACING STUDENTS ON THEIR PROPER INSTRUCTIONAL LEVEL IS NOT ACHIEVED GENERALLY IN A SCHOOL UNLESS IT IS MADE A MATTER OF POLICY AND IMPLEMENTED IN WELL-DEFINED WAYS. THREE SCHOOL-WIDE PROCEDURES CONCERNED WITH DETERMINING…

IF IT IS RECOGNIZED THAT THE SOLE JUSTIFICATION IN GIVING A TEST IS TO OBTAIN A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHILD, FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE CHILD'S PERFORMANCE ON THE TEST MUST BE CONSIDERED IN THE INTERPRETATION OF TEST RESULTS. A SUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT, HIS BACKGROUND, HIS PERCEPTION OF THE TEST SITUATION, AND THE…

A STUDY DESCRIBED AS THE FIRST APPLICATION OF CROSS-VALIDATED UNIQUENESS ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES WAS DESIGNED TO ELIMINATE THE EFFECTS OF IMPERFECTIONS IN A PRIOR FACTOR-ANALYTIC STUDY OF READING COMPREHENSION WHICH USED TESTS ESPECIALLY CONSTRUCTED TO MEASURE MENTAL SKILLS IN READING. A UNIQUENESS ANALYSIS BASED ON LARGE SAMPLES WAS USED TO OBTAIN…

TESTING MATERIALS IN BOTH SPANISH AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDITIONS WERE REVISED AND NEW MATERIALS CREATED IN THIS PROJECT. THE NEW SERIES OF TESTS INCLUDED ADMINISTRATION, AND ITEM ANALYSIS OF THE COOPERATIVE INTER-AMERICAN TESTS. DATA FOR THE ENGLISH EDITIONS WERE GATHERED FROM SUBJECTS DRAWN FROM AMERICAN SCHOOLS, AND DATA FOR THE SPANISH EDITIONS…

Several studies on the use of the cloze procedure as a measure of readability and of comprehension are reviewed. These studies showed (1) that the cloze procedure proved a more reliable measure of readability for nonstandard reading materials than the commonly used readability formulas, (2) that cloze tests are valid and reliable predictors of the…

The Bullen Reading Attitude Measure (BRAM) is an instrument that was developed to serve as a diagnostic aid in assessing reading attitudes of elementary school children in grades one through six. The objectives of the test are to measure the subject's attitude toward reading at home or school, visiting the library, owning and buying books,…