An analysis of teachers' rating scales as sources of evidence for a standardised Greek reading test

Abstract

Until recently there has been no nationally acceptable test for assessing reading for the higher grades (Five and Six) of the elementary schools in Greece. As part of an effort to validate such a test, evidence was gathered from teachers' rating scales. Seventy-two teachers from Fifth and Sixth Grades all over Greece evaluated their 1377 students' reading ability prior to the administration of a standardised reading test. The teachers were instructed to rate each student's reading achievement, disregarding effort, intelligence, behaviour and attendance. Within class correlation coefficients were computed to determine whether teachers' personal judgement (ratings) and students' actual performance on the reading test were correlated. The standardised reading test and the teachers' ratings were found to have a strong correlation. The match between Greek teachers' assessments of student reading levels and the scores obtained using a newly standardised reading test is reported, in order to examine the extent to which teacher ratings and standardised test results of students yield the same information. The rationale of this study is to investigate whether a new standardised Greek reading test can provide an alternative tool for the assessment of Greek primary education.Reading in Greece is taught as part of a linguistic lesson called 'My Language'. Assessment is an ongoing educational process, on the basis of which the pupil's learning progress is monitored (Kassotakis, 1994;Mavromatis, 1996). Its main aim in primary schools is to improve the students' learning by improving the teaching instruction and the operation of the schools. Assessment in Greek primary schools is not of a competitive or selective nature (Ypepth, 1994).In a linguistic lesson, classroom teachers can assess their students in the following ways:on daily oral reading on the passage that is presented in the chapter; by students' performance in the different written exercises in their textbooks; by short composition essays that students have to write two to three times per week; by revision assignments done in school, either oral or written; by formal tests written by teachers three times a year (Ypepth, 1994).

Inattention, hyperactivity and low parental education in children with conduct problems and poor reading skills

“…Being a cloze sentence task, the TRAD relies both on reading comprehension and word decoding skills (Cain and Oakhill, ) thus reducing significantly the risk of ceiling effects. Finally, another benefit in using the TRAD is that it correlates highly with teacher ratings, and as a result, it reliably reflects children's reading level in school (Triga, ).…”

Executive Function Variation in Children With Conduct Problems: Influences of Coexisting Reading Difficulties

“…Test administration is 40 minutes. It has good reliability (Guttmann split-half = 0.93, Cronbach’s alpha = 0.94; Tafa, 1995) and correlates highly with teacher ratings of children’s reading ability (Triga, 2004).…”

Investigating the Reliability and Accuracy of Teachers’ Judgement in Assessing Writing

“…The role of the teacher in the process of evaluation and intervention has a long history that dates back to the first days of psychometry. A significant number of weighted tests, use the existence of high statistical relevance to teachers' assessments to prove their validity both internationally and in Greece (Coladarci, 1986, Triga, 2004 as cited in Triga-Mertica, 2010). Through continuous monitoring of their pupils and daily interaction with them, teachers are aware of the performance and skills of each pupil, as well as his behavior compared to his classmates, bearing in mind a wide range of different pupils' behaviors and cases.…”

“…Another critical application of such scales, is the ability to identify pupils with Learning Disabilities. A review of the international bibliography shows that these scales have been used in research in Norway (Salvesen & Undheim, 1994), Australia (Kenny & Chekaluk, 1993), USA (Gresman et al, 1997), Romania (Negovan et al, 2011), and Greece (Dimakos, 2007(Dimakos, , 2008Triga, 2004). The vast majority of the results of these studies present the teachers as accurate and reliable in their assessments.…”