This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Kenny, D. T. Articles by Chekaluk, E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kenny, D. T. Articles by Chekaluk, E. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Early Reading Performance

A Comparison of Teacher-Based and Test-Based Assessments

Dianna T. Kenny is currently a lecturer in the Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Australia. She is also a practicing registered clinical and educational psychologist and a former elementary school teacher and specialist school counselor for children with emotional disturbance. Her research interests include psychological and educational assessment and learning disabilities. Address: Dianna T. Kenny, Department of Behavioral Sciences, The University of Sydney, East St., Lidcombe, New South Wales 2141, Australia.

Eugene Chekaluk

Eugene Chekaluk is currently a lecturer in psychology and research methods in the Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney. His research interests are in the area of perception, specifically in perceptual processes during eye movements. He has collaborated with a number of researchers in the health sciences and psychology as advisor on research methodology and statistics.

An unresolved question in early screening is whether test-based or teacher-based assessments should form the basis of the classification of children at risk of educational failure. Available structured teacher rating scales are lacking in predictive validity, and teacher predictions of students likely to experience reading difficulties have yielded disappointing true positive rates, with teachers failing to identify the majority of severely disabled readers. For this study, three educational screening instruments were developed: (a) a single teacher rating, categorizing children into three levels of reading ability (advanced, average, poor); (b) a 15-item teacher questionnaire designed to measure students' cognitive and language ability, attentional and behavioral characteristics, and academic performance; and (c) a battery of language and reading tests that are predictive of, or correlate with, reading failure. The concurrent validity of each instrument was assessed in a sample of 312 Australian schoolchildren from kindergarten, Year 1, and Year 2. Students were assessed at the end of the 1989 school year after having completed 1, 2, or 3 years of schooling. The results suggest that the nature of the skills required for success in reading changes in the first 3 years of schooling. Both teachers and tests concur more closely as children progress through the elementary years and as the risk behavior (reading) becomes more accessible to direct measurement. Carefully focused teacher rating scales may be a cost-effective means of identifying children at risk of reading failure. Improved teacher rating scales should be developed and used to assist in the early screening process.

Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 26, No. 4, 227-236 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/002221949302600403


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. V. Souroulla, G. Panayiotou, and C. M. Kokkinos The Role of the Teacher in Identifying Learning Disabilities: A Study Using the McCarney Learning Disability Evaluation Scale (LDES) J Learn Disabil, November 1, 2009; 42(6): 483 - 493. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. E. Bennett, T. J. Power, R. B. Eiraldi, S. S. Leff, and N. J. Blum Identifying Learning Problems in Children Evaluated for ADHD: The Academic Performance Questionnaire Pediatrics, October 1, 2009; 124(4): e633 - e639. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Huijun Li, S. I. Pfeiffer, Y. Petscher, A. T. Kumtepe, and Guofang Mo Validation of the Gifted Rating Scales-School Form in China Gifted Child Quarterly, April 1, 2008; 52(2): 160 - 169. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. A. R. Gijsel, A. M. T. Bosman, and L. Verhoeven Kindergarten Risk Factors, Cognitive Factors, and Teacher Judgments as Predictors of Early Reading in Dutch J Learn Disabil, December 1, 2006; 39(6): 558 - 571. [Abstract] [PDF]