Psychometric Properties of Maze Tasks in Middle School Students

Emotion-Driven Eating and Overeating Among Fourth Graders: The Roles of Body Image, Academic Achievement, and Peer and School Factors

BACKGROUND

Eating patterns such as breakfast consumption and fruit and vegetable intake have been associated with academic achievement and cognitive function.

METHOD

The purpose of this study was to learn more about psychological (emotion-driven eating) and behavioral (over-eating) eating patterns and motives, and the roles of body image, academic achievement (reading and math), and social supports (peer acceptance and school attachment), among 378 fourth-grade students (55% boys) from 14 classrooms across 6 schools within a large Midwestern urban area.

RESULTS

Results were analyzed through a 2-group (male and female) path analysis. Boys' overeating (R2  = 9%) was not significantly predicted. Their emotional eating (R2  = 22.2%) was negatively, significantly predicted by peer acceptance and interaction of peer acceptance and school attachment. Girls' overeating (R2  = 13.6%) was negatively, significantly predicted by positive body image. Girls' emotional eating (R2  = 24.1%) was negatively significantly predicted by positive body image, math scores, and peer acceptance.

CONCLUSIONS

Boys' and girls' eating patterns are differentially affected by their school experiences.

Screening zur Erfassung des Leseverständnisses in den Klassen 6 – 7 (SELV 6 – 7)

Zusammenfassung. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird das Screening zur Erfassung des Leseverständnisses für die Klassen 6 – 7 (SELV 6 – 7) vorgestellt, welches Leseverständnis während des Lesens mittels der Maze-Prozedur erfasst. Der Test liegt in einer Print- (SELV-P) und Digitalversion (SELV-D) vor. Es wurden 5 Paralleltestformen entwickelt. Zwei Studien zur Überprüfung der Reliabilität und Validität in den Klassen 6 und 7 werden präsentiert, wobei drei verschiedene Maze-Scorings (1: korrekt, 2: korrekt-inkorrekt, 3: korrekt / bearbeitet) einander gegenübergestellt werden. Studie 1 (SELV-P, n = 222, davon 85 6. Klasse) zeigt, dass die 4 Formen (ohne Form 3) die gleiche Fähigkeit messen, jedoch mit unterschiedlichen Mittelwerten. Der Einsatz als Lernverlauf-Messinstrument erscheint somit mit separaten Normen je Form möglich. Die Paralleltest- und Retestreliabilität dieser 4 Formen ist unter Verwendung von Score 1 und 2 ausreichend hoch, nicht aber bei Score 3. In Studie 2 (SELV-D, n = 345, davon 150 6. Klasse) wurde nur Form 1 betrachtet, die unter Verwendung aller 3 Scores die Kriterien der diskriminanten und konvergenten Validität erfüllt.

Does CBM maze assess reading comprehension in 8-9-year olds at-risk for dyslexia?

Recent research has reported the word-level, code-related focus of curriculum-based measures (CBM) of reading comprehension such as Maze (Muijselaar et al., 2017) with typically developing readers, but research has yet to examine whether this finding also applies to children at-risk for dyslexia. We administered a collection of cognitive, linguistic, CBM, and norm-referenced measures to children whose word reading and decoding fluency fell below the 25th percentile and were, therefore, considered at-risk readers. We found that language comprehension contributed additional variance beyond decoding (fluency and accuracy measures) to reading comprehension as assessed by the WIAT-III, but that decoding explained the most variance in children's performance on the CBM Maze task (vis à vis the simple view of reading). The findings have practical implications to the use of CBM Maze as a formative assessment with children at-risk for dyslexia and elucidate the need for additional or alternative assessments to capture the reading comprehension construct.

CBM maze-scores as indicators of reading level and growth for seventh-grade students

The technical adequacy of CBM maze-scores as indicators of reading level and growth for seventh-grade secondary-school students was examined. Participants were 452 Dutch students who completed weekly maze measures over a period of 23 weeks. Criterion measures were school level, dyslexia status, scores and growth on a standardized reading test. Results supported the technical adequacy of maze scores as indicators of reading level and growth. Alternate-form reliability coefficients were significant and intermediate to high. Mean maze scores showed significant increase over time, students' growth trajectories differed, and students' initial performance levels (intercepts) and growth rates (slopes) were not correlated. Maze reading level and growth were related to reading level and/or growth on criterion measures. A nonlinear model provided a better fit for the data than a linear model. Implications for use of CBM maze-scores for data-based decision-making are discussed.

Why Intensive Interventions Matter: Longitudinal Studies of Adolescents With Reading Disabilities and Poor Reading Comprehension

We describe findings from a series of longitudinal studies utilizing a response to intervention framework implemented over 3 years with students in Grades 6 through 8 with reading disabilities and poor reading comprehension. Students were identified based on reading comprehension scores in Grade 5 (n = 1,083) and then randomized to treatment or comparison conditions. Beginning in sixth grade, students assigned to intervention were provided treatment for 1, 2, or 3 years based on their response to instruction in each preceding year. Screening procedures, progress monitoring tools, tiers of instruction, and findings from each year of the study are reported. Additional studies investigating reading and behavioral outcomes through multi-level, growth modeling, and studies of the cognitive and neural correlates of inadequate response are also reported.

Predicting reading outcomes with progress monitoring slopes among middle grade students

Effective implementation of response-to-intervention (RTI) frameworks depends on efficient tools for monitoring progress. Evaluations of growth (i.e., slope) may be less efficient than evaluations of status at a single time point, especially if slopes do not add to predictions of outcomes over status. We examined progress monitoring slope validity for predicting reading outcomes among middle school students by evaluating latent growth models for different progress monitoring measure-outcome combinations. We used multi-group modeling to evaluate the effects of reading ability, reading intervention, and progress monitoring administration condition on slope validity. Slope validity was greatest when progress monitoring was aligned with the outcome (i.e., word reading fluency slope was used to predict fluency outcomes in contrast to comprehension outcomes), but effects varied across administration conditions (viz., repeated reading of familiar vs. novel passages). Unless the progress monitoring measure is highly aligned with outcome, slope may be an inefficient method for evaluating progress in an RTI context.

Patterns of cognitive strengths and weaknesses: Identification rates, agreement, and validity for learning disabilities identification

Few empirical investigations have evaluated learning disabilities (LD) identification methods based on a pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses (PSW). This study investigated the reliability and validity of two proposed PSW methods: the concordance/discordance method (C/DM) and cross battery assessment (XBA) method. Cognitive assessment data for 139 adolescents demonstrating inadequate response to intervention was utilized to empirically classify participants as meeting or not meeting PSW LD identification criteria using the two approaches, permitting an analysis of: (a) LD identification rates, (b) agreement between methods, and (c) external validity. LD identification rates varied between the 2 methods depending upon the cut point for low achievement, with low agreement for LD identification decisions. Comparisons of groups that met and did not meet LD identification criteria on external academic variables were largely null, raising questions of external validity. This study found low agreement and little evidence of validity for LD identification decisions based on PSW methods. An alternative may be to use multiple measures of academic achievement to guide intervention.