TY - GEN
T1 - An analysis of standardized reading ability tests
T2 - 7th International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ICLS 2006
AU - Rowe, Michael
AU - Ozuru, Yasuhiro
AU - McNamara, Danielle
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank NATO for the award of grant number 0324/87 to facilitate collaboration between the two laboratories. We also thank John Wood for designing and constructing the conductivity sensor and for general electronic support, and Albert Nutty and David Purse for construction of the flow cells.
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - This study examined what types of passage and individual item attributes of reading ability tests affect item difficulty. Ninety-six questions from the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test for 7/9th graders were analyzed in terms of individual item characteristics and passage features that were considered to affect the item's difficulty. Whereas two passage features, word frequency and sentence length, influenced the item difficulty, none of the individual question characteristics were found to affect the item difficulty. Thus, the GMRT may be assessing how difficult a passage readers can comprehend, not how difficult a question readers can answer about a passage. These findings imply that the GMRT may function well when identifying basic reading comprehension skill differences, but not higher level reading skill differences. However, these findings may be the result of the passages in the GMRT having an atypical construction. Specifically, shorter passages tended to be composed of longer sentences.
AB - This study examined what types of passage and individual item attributes of reading ability tests affect item difficulty. Ninety-six questions from the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test for 7/9th graders were analyzed in terms of individual item characteristics and passage features that were considered to affect the item's difficulty. Whereas two passage features, word frequency and sentence length, influenced the item difficulty, none of the individual question characteristics were found to affect the item difficulty. Thus, the GMRT may be assessing how difficult a passage readers can comprehend, not how difficult a question readers can answer about a passage. These findings imply that the GMRT may function well when identifying basic reading comprehension skill differences, but not higher level reading skill differences. However, these findings may be the result of the passages in the GMRT having an atypical construction. Specifically, shorter passages tended to be composed of longer sentences.
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M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:38349068972
SN - 0805861742
SN - 9780805861747
T3 - ICLS 2006 - International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Proceedings
SP - 627
EP - 633
BT - ICLS 2006 - International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Proceedings
Y2 - 27 June 2006 through 1 July 2006
ER -