Curriculum-Based Measurement of Reading Progress Monitoring: The Importance of Growth Magnitude and Goal Setting in Decision Making

National Association of School Psychologists. 4340 East West Highway Suite 402, Bethesda, MD 20814. Tel: 301-657-0270; Fax: 301-657-0275; e-mail: publications@naspweb.org; Web site: http://www.nasponline.org/publications/

Y

9

Institute of Education Sciences (ED)

R324A130161

Progress Monitoring; Curriculum Based Assessment; Goal Orientation; Decision Making; Oral Reading; Error of Measurement; Least Squares Statistics; Scores; Reading Rate; Reading Improvement

0279-6015

Research regarding the technical adequacy of growth estimates from curriculum-based measurement of reading progress monitoring data suggests that current decision-making frameworks are likely to yield inaccurate recommendations unless data are collected for extensive periods of time. Instances where data may not need to be collected for long periods to make defensible decisions are presented. Recommendations to collect data for upwards of 3 months may be appropriate for students whose rate of improvement (ROI) approximates the criterion to which their performance is being compared. A framework is presented to help evaluate whether a student's ROI is substantially discrepant from an expected rate of growth (i.e., goal line). A spreadsheet program was created that used user-specified parameters for goal line magnitude, dataset variability, and data collection duration, in order to identify critical ROIs to determine whether students were making adequate progress with different levels of certainty. Analyses suggest that decisions may be feasible sooner than previously thought, particularly when growth is highly discrepant from the goal line and variability in the data is limited. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

As Provided

12

Yes

2017

EJ1156329