Validity and internal consistency of two district-developed assessments of Title I students

Reading and writing summaries (teacher ratings of student performances on skills in reading and writing) developed in an Illinois school district for Title I program use were examined for validity and internal consistency. Assessment data were collected on students in grades 1-3 for seven marking periods over two school years. Internal consistency was evaluated through examination of repetitive ratings and multiple generalizability studies, which yielded generally high internal consistency indices for both summaries, but suggested that there were serious problems with many students receiving the same rating on all summary items. Validity for proficiency inferences was examined in analyses of content validity, score comparisons to the Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) scores in reading and writing, and confidence intervals around proficiency scores, in which support was obtained for the content validity of the reading summaries, but other concerns were raised about proficiency inferences. Validity of instructional inferences received some support in comparison of reading summary scores to the running record of oral reading, and in path analysis models of expected relationships between reading and writing summaries over time. Several actions were recommended to improve internal consistency and validity for proficiency and instructional inferences, such as: including teachers in assessment development and evaluation, examining reliability across multiple raters and occasions, constructing a feasible five-point rating scale for summary rubrics, examination of gains in proficiency, and identification of additional criterion measures and relevant theoretical relationships about reading and writing.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Watkins, Thomas James

Contributors dc:contributor

• DeStefano, Lizanne

• Education, Tests and Measurements
• Education, Educational Psychology

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1996 Watkins, Thomas James

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

9780591199604
AAI9712478
(UMI)AAI9712478

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23073