Development of reading achievement in second grade: Construction of a process-oriented test series for learning progress assessment using rule-based item design

• Applicant: Dr. Natalie Förster
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273342676

Learning progress assessment provides a rational basis for teachers to adapt instruction to individual needs by giving information about proficiency level and change. Present measures used for monitoring reading progress (Verlaufsdiagnostik sinnerfassenden Lesens (VSL), Lernfortschrittsdiagnostik Lesen (LDL)), however, do not differentiate between component processes of reading comprehension. Moreover, the test development procedures used so far do not necessarily result in homogeneously difficult tests, derogating the interpretation of change. The current research project aims at developing a test series consisting of four equivalent (homogeneously difficult) tests assessing the efficiency of component processes of reading comprehension on word, sentence, and text level using rule-based item design (i.e. systematic manipulation of item properties). Learning progress assessment does not only require psychometrically sound instruments, but also needs to be very efficient with regard to test execution and scoring. Using the internet-based tool quop, which provides straightforward test execution and scoring, 53 second grade classrooms (N = 1219) will complete four tests on the computer at intervals of three weeks each. Data will be calibrated using a test booklet-design assuring that every item will be answered at each measurement point by one-quarter of the participants (N = 304). In addition, a partial sample (12 classrooms, = 276) will complete standardized paper-pencil achievement tests on reading, mathematics, and intelligence, and teachers will be asked to rate their students´ reading performance to validate the new test series. Besides the analyses of the psychometric properties of the test series, the research project will focus on the question whether a rule-based item design allows the development of equivalent tests. Moreover, it investigates whether stimulus properties on word-, sentence-, and text level influence (a) item difficulty and processing time and (b) item sensitivity to learning progress. A hierarchical framework for modeling speed and accuracy on test items is used that is capable of simultaneously estimating ability and speed on the person side as well as difficulty and time intensity on the task side. The current research project aims at developing a test series that can be used to investigate individual growth trajectories in reading, the interdependence of component processes of reading and their development, as well as interindividual differences in reading growths and influencing circumstances. Moreover, generalizable principles for test development procedures for learning progress assessments will be derived from this study.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants