The Survey of Reading Attitudes was administered to fifth and sixth graders. A factor analysis revealed eight factors: Expressed Reading Difficulty, Reading as Enjoyment, Reading Group, Silent vs. Oral Reading, Alternative Learning Modes, Reading as Direct Reinforcement, Comics, and Reading Anxiety. The obtained factor structure was compared with…

Cluster analysis was used to identify two homogeneous clusters of 8 to 9 1/2 year old children (N=98) who misarticulated /s/, /r/, or both, then discriminant function analysis was used to identify a subset of five measures and compute classification scores for assignment of 42 new subjects to the clusters. (Author/MC)

Subjects were better able to read essays in good rhetorical form with explicit structural cues than essays in bad form without cues and in deviant paragraph order. Differences depended upon whether the test evaluated macro- or microprocesses (global or local comprehension). Comprehension strategies involving rhetorical cues are discussed.…

Argues that the results of oral reading tests may be interpreted as being more precise and reliable than is warranted and that the amount of error in the results of these tests may make them more variable than is typically assumed. Recommends ways to improve the interpretation of oral reading test scores. (FL)

Four methods of item bias detection--transformed item difficulty, item discrimination expressed as Clemans' lambda, chi-square, and the three-parameter item characteristic curve--were studied to determine the degree of correspondence among them in identifying biased and unbiased items in reading and mathematics subtests of the 1978 SRA Achievement…

Concludes that valid reading tests are needed for adults and should be designed differently than tests for academic or school-related reading. (AEA)

Reports a study of children's responses to a passage-dependent reading comprehension test. (HTH)

Analysis of the performance of hearing impaired and normal hearing adolescents on a standardized reading test shows that the hearing impaired students attempted significantly more items than their hearing counterparts, but made more errors and significantly more errors that are classified as "nonlinguistic" in nature. (FL)

Analysis of the performance of hearing impaired and normal hearing nine- to eleven-year-old children on a standardized reading test shows that the hearing impaired children tackled significantly more test items than their hearing counterparts and made significantly more errors in achieving similar reading scores. (FL)

Suggests that most countries using an alphabetic language system judge success in beginning reading as the ability to do tasks demonstrating mastery of the same set of skills, but that the types of tasks used to measure these skills and the number of skills tested vary from country to country. (FL)

The fundamental Reading Competencies Test assesses proficiency with respect to well-defined functional reading skills of high school students. Validity and reliability data for the test are presented. (Author/JKS)

Methods developed by Rothkopf; McConkie, Rayner and Wilson; McGaw and Grotelueschen; DiVesta and Rickards to assess prose processes produced by adjunct postquestions are reviewed. The processes are: specific backward; general backward; specific forward; and general forward. (MH)

Suggests that teacher observations form a valid and integral part of student assessment and that, in addition to standardized tests and informal tests, this "inner-ocular technique" is an important means for assessing the effectiveness of reading instruction. (MKM)

The 54-item inventory allows teachers to compare their understanding and knowledge of how to help secondary level students read social studies materials with the opinions of reading specialists and findings of reading researchers. (Author/KC)