Valid and reliable assessments of reading proficiency are essential to educators’ ability to make informed instructional decisions. This study evaluated the results of InSight, a web-based, adaptive reading assessment, in relation to the Smarter Balanced (SBAC) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) English Language Arts (ELA) assessments used in eighteen US states and other geopolitical entities during the 2018-19 school year. InSight can be administered in a group or individualized setting with minimal teacher oversight. Students typically need 30-40 minutes to complete the assessment and the results are immediately available. SBAC and PARCC ELA assessments require more oversight and time to administer, usually 3-4 hours, and results are provided within a few weeks to a few months after administration.

InSight showed strong concurrent validity (Pearson’s r >.70) and classification accuracy (lower bound of the Area Under the Curve (AUC) confidence interval > .80 and overall classification accuracy rate >75%) with the SBAC and PARCC ELA assessments in each grade measured (3-8) and overall.

“The ability for a short reading assessment (InSIght) to accurately classify students’ reading/ELA proficiency in comparison to widely-used assessments used for high-stakes accountability is critical for many instructional decisions such as tiered interventions for at-risk students.”

The post Evaluating Concurrent Validity and Classification Accuracy of a Short Web-based Adaptive Assessment Compared to Two Assessments Widely Used in the United States appeared first on Reading Plus.

This report focuses on a comparison between the Reading Plus InSight assessment and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers English Language Arts/Literacy assessment (PARCC ELA) as well as the impact of the Reading Plus instructional intervention on student performance on the PARCC ELA assessment.

Study Design:

This school district study included students in grades 3-11 with valid PARCC ELA and InSight assessment data from spring 2018 (n = 2,121), and students in grades 4-11 who had valid PARCC ELA scores from spring 2017 and spring 2018 (n = 2,287).

Key Results:

The Reading Plus InSight assessment and the PARCC ELA assessment are strongly correlated and have equivalent expectations for proficiency, which makes InSight a strong predictor of PARCC ELA performance.

Students who completed at least 80 Reading Plus lessons consistently had the highest percentage rate of advancement to a higher PARCC ELA performance level assessment when compared to students who used Reading Plus less frequently.

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This study examined the impact of Reading Plus practice lessons on reading proficiency growth as measured by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessment. Also examined were relationships between scores and levels on the SBAC and InSight assessments.

Study Design:

This school district study included students in grades 4-8 with valid SBAC assessment data from 2015 and 2016 (n = 3,024). Of these students, 1,568 completed reading practice lessons in Reading Plus. An additional focus was the subset of these students who also had two valid InSight assessments during the 2015-16 school year (n = 1,075).

Key Results:

Students who engaged in more Reading Plus practice achieved significantly larger gains on both the SBAC and the InSight assessments.

There also was good alignment between SBAC and InSight. Students who completed at least 80 reading practice lessons in Reading Plus improved their InSight reading proficiency by 1.5 grade levels. Those who achieved higher grade levels on the InSight assessment also achieved higher proficiency levels on the SBAC.

Further, those who did not meet the SBAC grade standard in 2015, and completed at least 80 reading practice lessons in Reading Plus, were more likely to advance from not meeting to meeting the grade standard (Achievement Level 3) on the SBAC in 2016.

The post Reading Plus Impact on Reading Proficiency According to SBAC & InSight appeared first on Reading Plus.

While the control group showed no significant gains on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, the treatment group made statistically significant gains (from pre-test scores of 33.7 to post-test scores of 42.3). The treatment group also made higher gains on the Visagraph GLE (3.6 to 6.8) than the control group (4.0 to 4.6), as well as the Visagraph Reading Rate with Comprehension (142.5 to 182.9 for the treatment group and 140.4 to 149.5 for the control group). On the FCAT, the treatment group showed the most gains with a score change of 220.18, while the control group showed lesser gains with a score change of 142.4.

“While the control group showed no significant gains on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, the treatment group made statistically significant gains.”

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