Teachers' Ratings of the Acceptability of Curriculum-Based Assessment Methods

Development and Refinement of a Measure for Assessing the Acceptability of Assessment Methods: The Assessment Rating Profile-Revised

This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of the Assessment Rating Profile-Revised (ARP-R), an instrument designed to evaluate the acceptability of assessment methods. First, an overview of the initial exploratory work on the original scale, the Assessment Rating Profile (APR; Kratochwill & Van Someren, 1984), is provided. Research examining the reliability and validity of the ARP is reviewed and psychometric inadequacies are highlighted. Next, the results of a study examining the psychometric properties of the revised measure are reported. The results of the study indicated that the ARP-R demonstrated good internal consistency, with coefficients ranging from .94 to .99. Test-retest reliability across 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month intervals rangedfrom .82 to .85, suggesting adequate stability over time. Confirmatory factor analytic procedures indicated a reasonable fit of the data to the proposed one-factor model, “General Assessment Acceptability.” Lastly, suggestions are made regarding use of the ARP-R in applied and research settings.

The Applicability of Curriculum-Based Measurement to Measure Reading in Hebrew

This study was an initial effort to examine the applicability of Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) procedures to measure reading in a language other than English and more specifically, in Hebrew. Participants included a sample of 458 students from grades 1-5 from three elementary schools in Israel, 416 from regular education and 42 students from grades 2-5 who were receiving special services in reading. Students were tested on CBM probes in the winter and spring of the 2002 academic year. Four characteristics of the CBM measure were evaluated: (1) concurrent validity with two reading sub-scales (decoding and comprehension) of the Kaufman-ABC that had been translated and normed in Israel; (2) student outcomes in reading fluency across grades and across time within grades; (3) ability of the measure to discriminate students with and without reading problems and (4) the sensitivity of the measure when used weekly for progress monitoring. Results indicated that moderate to strong correlation coefficients were evident between CBM scores and the K-ABC reading subscales except for grade 4 in the spring. Also, students showed increased growth across grades and across time within the school year, except for a lack of increase from grade 2 to 3 in the spring. Students receiving specialized help for reading scored significantly lower on CBM probes when compared with regular education students. Finally, a gradual week-by-week progress rate in the curriculum comparable to those found with CBM reading in English was also found. Results suggest that the oral reading fluency metric may be applicable to evaluating reading in Hebrew. Implications for the use of the metric in other countries and languages are discussed.

Identifying Students With Specific Learning Disabilities: School Psychologists’ Acceptability of the Discrepancy Model Versus Response to Intervention

A national sample of 496 practicing school psychologists and members of the National Association of School Psychologists were surveyed to assess levels of acceptability for the IQ-achievement (IQ-A) discrepancy model and the Response to Intervention (RTI) model as part of the identification process for students with specific learning disabilities. Significantly higher levels of acceptability were found for the RTI model. As levels of exposure to the RTI model increased, acceptability ratings for the RTI model increased and ratings for the IQ-A discrepancy model decreased. Variations in acceptability ratings for the RTI model were also found to occur in relation to school psychologists’ school setting. Specifically, school psychologists employed at middle and high schools demonstrated lower levels of acceptability for the RTI model compared with those employed at elementary and multiple settings. Implications of the study for practice and future research, as well as limitations, are discussed.