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ICARE: Independent Comprehensive Adaptive Reading Evaluation System

Year: 2004
Name of Institution:
University of Colorado, Boulder
Goal: Measurement
Principal Investigator:
Wise, Barbara
Award Amount: $1,661,470
Award Period: 4 years
Award Number: R305G040097

Description:

Purpose: In this project, the researchers planned to develop and validate a system called ICARE to address the problem of providing effective, inexpensive, and comprehensive reading assessment to any student in need. The researchers’ goal in creating ICARE was to quickly separate readers who do not have reading problems from those who do. For students with problems, it would identify the nature of underlying problems with engaging and non-threatening testing. Additionally, ICARE would recommend treatments that addressed these problems either within or independent from a related interactive instructional system.

Structured Abstract

THE FOLLOWING CONTENT DESCRIBES THE PROJECT AT THE TIME OF FUNDING

Population: ICARE will be designed for independent use by English- or Spanish-speaking children from grades 3 to 7.

Assessment: ICARE stands for independent, comprehensive, adaptive reading evaluation. The goal is to enable assessment of reading problems for students in schools with minimal attention required by teachers. This goal will be achieved by replacing a human test giver with a virtual evaluator—a lifelike animated computer character that converses with the student to guide him or her through the assessment procedure. Tests will be scored by the computer using mouse-clicked choices or speech recognition while measuring response times. Any test that depends on speech recognition will also have a version that depends instead on mouse-clicked responses. ICARE is comprehensive because it will identify problems in word reading or comprehension and in the major component processes that appear to be causing the problem for a particular child. ICARE will also flag unusual patterns of responses and suggest further appropriate evaluation by speech therapists or school psychologists (for language comprehension beyond two standard deviations below grade level or for patterns suggesting possible attention problems, such as scoring higher on reading than listening comprehension). Finally, ICARE is adaptive in the specific sequence of tests for each student, which depends on their performance on previous tests. The logic behind the adaptive sequences is informed by both theory and scientifically based reading research and it will be tested and validated or modified during the course of the project.

Research Design and Methods: Students in grades 3 to 7 with a broad range of reading abilities, ethnicities, and socio-economic statuses will be tested with both ICARE and reliable and widely accepted standardized measures. Many will be tested again a year later using similar procedures. These measures, spoken or mouse-clicked tests, and the adaptive system itself, will be analyzed for concurrent validity and for reliability. We argue that developing and making ICARE widely available will produce remarkable and unprecedented benefits to students, teachers, administrators, and researchers throughout the United States.

Related IES Projects: Early ICARE: Early Independent Comprehensive Adaptive Reading Evaluation (R305A070231)

Products and Publications

ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.

Select Publications:

Book chapters

Olson, R., and Wise, B. (2006). Computer-Based Remediation for Reading and Related Phonological Disabilities. In M. McKenna, L. Labbo, R. Kieffer, and D. Reinking (Eds.), Handbook of Literacy and Technology, Vol. 2(pp. 57–74). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Wise, B., Rogan, L., and Sessions, L. (2009). Sharing Research Knowledge With Teachers: The Story Of Linguistic Remedies. In S. Rosenfield, V. Berninger (Eds.), Implementing Evidence-based Academic Interventions in School Settings (pp. 443–477).

Journal articles

Hagen, A., Pellom, B. and Cole, R. (2007). Highly Accurate Children's Speech Recognition for Interactive Reading Tutors Using Subword Units. Speech Communication, 49(12): 861–873.

Snyder, L., Caccamise, D., and Wise, B. (2005). The Assessment of Reading Comprehension: Considerations and Cautions. Topics in Language Disorders, 25(1): 33–50.