The study examined differences in reading achievement and mastery skill development among Grade‐6 students with different language background profiles, using cognitive diagnosis modeling applied to large‐scale provincial reading test performance data. Our analyses revealed that students residing in various home language environments show different reading achievement growth patterns. Earlier gaps in their reading achievement disappear the longer they reside in the target language community. Additionally, students who come from home environments where they use English and another language equally demonstrate higher skill mastery achievement levels, indicating that immigrant students' diverse home language environments do not adversely affect their reading achievement in the longer term. The study results support the evidence that multilingual home language environments are not a cause of low achievement; however, the achievement patterns of Canadian‐born English language learners (ELLs) do differ from their immigrant counterparts, revealing that time alone is not a sufficient condition of reading skill achievement. ELLs' outperformance of monolinguals after 5 years of residence is a result of ongoing instructional support and a rich linguistic environment. The study results hold important policy implications: The evaluation of ELLs' academic achievement and school effectiveness for accountability purposes should be based on longitudinal data that track their developmental growths.
This paper reports on research examining how library staff in ten Ontario library preschool literacy programs support the early literacy and school readiness of threeand four-year-old children as well as their parents' and caregivers' literacy interactions with their children. The multiple data sources of the research include surveys of 82 parents/caregivers, observations of 65 of the 198 children at the sessions we visited, and interviews with ten library staff. Observations were analyzed for evidence of school readiness and early literacy skills that have been shown to be reliably and significantly correlated with future reading success: the children's print motivation, phonological awareness, vocabulary development, narrative awareness, and print awareness. Analysis of the data shows that the programs have been very successful in fostering children's school readiness (demonstrated through behaviours such as participating in activities and following instructions) and their motivation to read (demonstrated through attending to and asking questions about books being read). Participating children also demonstrated an awareness of rhymes and sounds of language, learned new vocabulary, and showed an understanding of narratives that were read by library staff: all of which are early literacy behaviours foundational to later literacy development. Print awareness, however, is an area of literacy development that library staff could encourage to a greater extent and is a recommended topic for the professional
One critical issue with cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) lies in its lack of research evidence that shows how diagnostic feedback from CDA is interpreted and used by young students. This mixed methods research examined how holistic diagnostic feedback (HDF) is processed by young learners with different profiles of reading skills, goal orientations, and perceived ability. HDF provides three learner profiles: learners' current skill mastery levels; self-assessed skill proficiency; and goal orientations. It also has a section for plans for future learning. A total of 44 Grades 5 and 6 students (aged 11-12) from two classrooms, their parents and teacher received individually customized HDF reports. Students' reading skill mastery profiles were determined based on the application of cognitive diagnostic modeling to their performance on a provincial reading achievement measure, while their perceived ability and goal orientation profiles were created by using self-assessment and goal-orientation questionnaires. Students and parents provided written responses to their HDF reports.The study findings show the dynamic influence of young students' profiles on the ways in which they perceive, interpret and use HDF. Students' responses to diagnostic feedback did not differ substantially across reading mastery levels; however, psychological factors most strongly impacted the efficacy of learner feedback processing. Furthermore, the result that it was not students' actual goal orientations but their perceived parent goal orientations that showed significant relationships with their skill mastery levels strongly indicates that young students' responses to HDF are likely to be influenced by broader learning environments, and such influences are further filtered through their own perceptions. Understanding students' interactions with diagnostic feedback is critical for maximizing its effect because their perceptions about ability and orientations to learning strongly influence the ways in which they process diagnostic feedback on their learning.
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