Tenaha O'Reilly

The purpose of this project is to create a generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI) enhanced authoring tool for scenario-based assessments (SBAs). SBAs place knowledge and skills into a scenario or practical context so that test-takers can be both observers of and active participants in their own performance, building on a body of IES funded investments in developing and validating SBAs.  This creates the opportunity for a reflective, metacognitive, and self-regulatory loop that enables ...

In this project, researchers will refine and pilot test an interactive, online reading comprehension program for adult literacy students reading between the 3rd- and 8th-grade level. This program, called AutoTutor for Adult Reading Comprehension (AT-ARC), was previously part of a hybrid lesson plan developed through the Center for Struggling Adult Learners (R305C120001) but will be refined to be a stand-alone comprehension practice tool. Roughly one in six adults in the United States have li...

A large percent of U.S. adults struggle to read even basic texts, but there are few valid assessments for adult learners who have underdeveloped reading literacy skills across the variety of educational settings that serve them. Consequently, there is limited support for diagnostic, progress monitoring, and outcome measurement that is aligned with empirically supported instruction. The purpose of this project was to develop a digital assessment system appropriate for use with adult learners,...

The purpose of this project was to explore the relationship between high school students' background knowledge and their reading comprehension. Research has shown that students with more background knowledge (namely the previously learned knowledge that may help students understand what they read by providing extra information that is not included in text) are better able to comprehend what they read than those students with little background knowledge. Although researchers know that backgro...

Higher education faces a crisis in that a number of students who start college are not sufficiently ready to read to be successful in their courses. Being underprepared to read has negative implications on students' likelihood of obtaining a degree and obtaining a successful career. Consequently, institutions of higher education invest money and resources to help under prepared students. This project was conducted under the assumption that these efforts are facilitated with a clear understan...