The Connecticut Mastery Tests: An analytic response to holistic measures of reading and writing

Date of Completion

January 2002

Keywords

Education, Tests and Measurements|Education, Elementary|Education, Educational Psychology

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

Fourth grade performance on the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMT) was investigated by examining the performance of 75 students on CMT practice tests of reading and writing, a second test of reading comprehension, decoding, listening comprehension, spelling, and ideation at the end of their third grade year. Decoding and listening comprehension were found to account for 50% of the variance in Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) scores, and spelling and ideation to account for 30% of the variance in writing scores. Spelling was also found to predict reading comprehension, as measured by the DRP and the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests (GMRT), and DRP and GMRT scores were found to be highly correlated ( r = .81). Results support the claim that holistic measures of reading and writing conceal different sources of variation that can only be assessed by analytic measures. ^

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