Company Study Indicates Using the Same Passages for Benchmark Assessments Is More Accurate
A study published in Learning Disabilities Research & Practice suggests that using the same passages for periodic benchmark assessments yields more accurate results than using different passages each time.
These results support the methodology used in Read Naturally’s Reading Fluency Benchmark Assessor tool, where students are assessed at their grade level three times a year with the same passages.
Some benchmark assessment tools, such as DIBELS, test students with different passages each time. The study indicates that this approach can lead to greater measurement error than testing with the same passages each time.
The results of the study are published in the article, “Measuring Gains in Reading Ability with Passage Reading Fluency” in the November 2005 issue of Learning Disabilities Research & Practice. The authors of the study are educators in Washington state, including Joseph Jenkins, Professor of Special Education at the University of Washington.
Another conclusion of the study was that there was no significant “practice effect” from using the same passages. That is, even though students reread the same passages after ten weeks and again after five weeks, their fluency gains did not appear to be inflated.