Purpose: Progress monitoring measures, unlike summative assessments, allow for the depiction and analysis of student growth and are uniquely suited for the evaluation of students' response to instruction and intervention. Assessments that measure individual student growth and progress must not only be reliable and valid, they must also allow for frequent measurement, be brief and easy to administer, and consist of a number of alternate forms so that the same test does not have to be used across repeated student assessments. These alternate forms must be constant in terms of the construct being measured, procedures for administration, and level of difficulty. Otherwise, changes in observed scores across time may not accurately reflect student growth, and, more importantly, may contribute to inaccurate decisions regarding students' response to intervention and potential referral for special education eligibility.

The purpose of this study is to improve progress monitoring in reading by developing, evaluating, and finalizing a set of passages and procedures, called Formative Assessment and Instrumentation Procedures for Reading. Specifically, the instrumentation and procedures are targeted to assess students' rate of reading and comprehension in first through fifth grade.

Project Activities: A three-phase process will guide the development and evaluation of the Formative Assessment and Instrumentation Procedures for Reading. In the first phase, the procedures and instrumentation for assessing students' rate of reading and comprehension will be developed, evaluated, and finalized. During the second phase, the research team will develop, evaluate, and finalize procedures for collecting progress monitoring data and interpreting progress-monitoring outcomes. This phase will result in empirically-based recommendations for monitoring and evaluating student progress. In the final phase, researchers will develop online tools to guide teachers' interpretation of collected data. A series of analytic methods, including repeated measures analysis of variance, regression, and multi-level modeling, will be used to develop and identify alternate forms of the Formative Assessment and Instrumentation Procedures for Reading and assessment procedures.

Products: The project will result in a new set of instruments, procedures, and guidelines to collect, interpret, and use progress monitoring data to measure students' reading growth. Researchers will also produce a set of interactive web-based materials to assist school personnel in understanding student data resulting from the assessments.

Setting: The research will be conducted in rural, suburban, and urban districts in Minnesota, Georgia, and New York.

Population: A representative sample of students will be recruited from elementary schools in the Minnesota, Georgia, and New York. Approximately, 900–1500 students in grades first through fifth grade will participate during each year of the study.

Research Design and Methods: A three-phase development process will guide the development and evaluation of the Formative Assessment and Instrumentation Procedures for Reading. In the first phase, the procedures and instrumentation for assessing rate of reading and comprehension will be developed, evaluated, and finalized. During this phase, alternate forms of the progress monitoring measure will be developed, and the equivalence of the alternate forms will be established. In addition, alternate administration procedures will be examined by asking students to read aloud; to read aloud and respond to questions; or to read aloud and then retell the story. Differences among the three administration procedures will be determined. During the second phase, the research team will develop, evaluate, and finalize procedures for collecting progress monitoring data and interpreting progress monitoring outcomes. This phase will result in recommendations for monitoring and evaluating student progress. Researchers will develop online tools during this phase to guide teachers' interpretation of collected data.

Data Analytic Strategy: A series of analytic methods, including repeated measures analysis of variance, regression, and multi-level modeling, will be used to develop and identify alternate forms of the Formative Assessment and Instrumentation Procedures for Reading and assessment procedures.

Assessment: The Formative Assessment and Instrumentation Procedures for Reading is a progress monitoring measure for first through fifth grade. The measure will assess growth in rate of reading and comprehension skills.

Control condition: Due to the nature of the research design, there is no control condition.

Key measures: Due to the nature of the research, the only measure used in this project is the Formative Assessment and Instrumentation Procedures for Reading.

Products and Publications

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Ardoin, S.P., Carfolite, J., Christ, T.J., Roof, C.M., and Klubnick, C. (2010). Examining Readability Estimates' Predictions of Students' Oral Reading Rate: Spache, Lexile, and Forcast. School Psychology Review, 39(2): 277–285.

Ardoin, S.P., Christ, T.J., Morena, L.S., Cormier, D.C., and Klingbeil, D.A. (2013). A Systematic Review and Summarization of the Recommendations and Research Surrounding Curriculum-Based Measurement of Oral Reading Fluency (CBM-R) Decision Rules. Journal of School Psychology, 51(1): 1–18. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2012.09.004

Ardoin, S.P., Eckert, T.L., Christ, T.J., White, M.J., Baxter, S.A., and Hine, J. (2013). Examining Variance in Reading Comprehension Among Developing Readers: Words in Context (Curriculum-Based Measurement in Reading) Versus Words Out of Context (Word Lists). School Psychology Review, 42(3): 243–261.

Christ, T.J., Monaghen, B., Zopluoglu, C., and Van Norman, E.R. (2013). Curriculum-Based Measurement of Oral Reading: Evaluation of Growth Estimates Derived With Pre-Post Assessment Methods. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 38(3): 139–153. doi:10.1177/1534508412456417

Christ, T.J., Nelson, P.M., Van Norman, E.R., Chafouleas, S.M. and Riley-Tillman, T.C. (2014). Direct Behavior Rating: An Evaluation of Time-Series Interpretations as Consequential Validity. School Psychology Quarterly, 29(2): 157–170. doi:10.1037/spq0000029

Christ, T.J., White, M.J., Ardoin, S.P., and Eckert, T.L. (2013). Curriculum-Based Measurement of Reading: Consistency and Validity Across Best, Fastest, and Question Reading Conditions. School Psychology Review, 42(4): 415–436.

Christ, T.J., Zopluoglu, C., Long, J., and Monaghen, B. (2012). Curriculum-Based Measurement of Oral Reading: Quality of Progress Monitoring Outcomes. Exceptional Children, 78(3): 356–373.

Christ, T.J., Zopluoglu, C., Monaghen, B., and Van Norman, E.R. (2013). Curriculum-Based Measurement of Oral Reading: Multi-Study Evaluation of Schedule, Duration, and Dataset Quality on Progress Monitoring Outcomes. Journal of School Psychology, 51(1): 19–57. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2012.11.001 Full text

January, S.A., and Ardoin, S.P. (2012). The Impact of Context and Word Type on Students' Maze Task Accuracy. School Psychology Review, 41(3): 262–271.

Thornblad, S., and Christ, T.J. (2014). Curriculum-Based Measurement of Reading: Is 6 Weeks of Daily Progress Monitoring Enough? School Psychology Review, 43(1): 19–29.

Van Norman, E.R., Christ, T.J., and Zopluoglu, C. (2013). The Effects of Baseline Estimation on the Reliability, Validity, and Precision of CBM-R Growth Estimates. School Psychology Quarterly, 28(3): 182–198.

Van Norman, E.R., Nelson, P.M., Shin, J.E., and Christ, T.J. (2013). An Evaluation of the Effects of Graphic Aids in Improving Decision Accuracy in a Continuous Treatment Design. Journal of Behavioral Education, 22(4): 283–301. doi:10.1007/s10864–013–9176–2

Nongovernment report, issue brief, or practice guide

Christ, T.J. (2012). Early Reading Assessments (EarlyReadingTM, English Version): Eleven Subtests of Pre-Reading and Basic Reading Skills. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

Christ, T.J. (2012). Formative Assessment and Instrumentation for Reading (FAIP-R TM): Curriculum-Based Measurement for Reading (Spanish). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

Christ, T.J., Ardoin, S.A., and Eckert, T. (2011). Formative Assessment and Instrumentation for Reading (FAIP-R): Curriculum-Based Measurement for Reading (English Version). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.