Meaningful Assessment of Content-Area Literacy for Youth with and without Disabilities

Abstract

This article discusses methods for evaluating students' content-area literacy skills. Four specific factors that affect content-area literacy are described: vocabulary knowledge, topic knowledge, text structure knowledge, and textbook readability, along with methods of evaluating each of the factors. Most of these methods have not yet been empirically tested to determine how reliable and valid they are for assessment purposes. Teachers of students with and without disabilities, therefore, are encouraged to interpret the results of these methods cautiously and to use a combination of techniques for triangulation on students' content area literacy skills.

Meta-Analysis of Validity and Review of Alternate Form Reliability and Slope for Curriculum-Based Measurement in Science and Social Studies

“…At this point in time, studies in this area have yet to analytically compare static scores for reliability and validity for use as predictors of performance on state or commercial content area assessments. Furthermore, Troia (2006) commented that the majority of these assessments have been "designed with instructional feedback rather than psychometric rigor in mind" (p. 78). More empirical evidence is necessary to determine if content area CBMs demonstrate adequate evidence of alternate form reliability, validity for content area knowledge, and slope estimates regarding use as screening and progress monitoring tools.…”