Master's Theses

Document Type

Thesis - campus only access

Date of Award

Spring 2004

Degree Name

Education Specialist (Ed.S)

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Robert Markley

Abstract

Due to the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, stricter standards have been placed on schools that require the eventual academic proficiency of all students. Constant progress monitoring must be conducted within the classroom to ensure that each student is achieving appropriate gains in the curriculum. Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is touted as a tool capable of measuring growth rates and identifying deficits in academic skills before failure occurs. The purpose or this study was to extend research conducted by Deno and his colleagues (2001). Shin, Deno, and Espin (2000), and Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, Watz, and Germann (1993) in hopes of adding to the current knowledge base on the growth rates of reading comprehension. The maze procedure (Guthrie, 1973), a measure of reading comprehension, is proposed as an alternative to conventional CBM. Seven weeks of maze scores were collected from students at two schools in South Central Kansas (77 fourth graders, 75 fifth graders, and 68 sixth grade students). The maze task was found to be useful in identifying intra- and inter-individual student differences in reading growth. Patterns of maze performance differed significantly by grade level. Comparisons between maze scores and standardized reading tests suggested that the measures were positively correlated, while oral reading fluency tasks and maze tasks yielded differing growth rates. The support these data added to the small existing pool of information created one more step toward the recognition of the maze task as a valid and reliable assessment tool for reading comprehension.

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Rights

© 2004 Kirsten R. Jones

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