Testing a Method of Analyzing the Difficulty of Beginning Books

• In Event: Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: Literacy Research Issues in the 21st Century

Abstract

The need to assess text difficulty has never been more emphasized than it is now with the publication of the Common Core State Standards (NGACBP & CCSSO, 2010) yet there is little agreement about a method for determining the text difficulty of beginning books (Hoffman et al., 2001). The purpose of this study is to examine Cunningham et al.’s (2005) proposed method to level books using three dimensions of print demand: word, sentence, and discourse-level features.
Results indicated the leveling method predicted text difficulty well with discourse and sentence-level measures but was unreliable with word-level measures, raising questions about the soundness and utility of their method. We conclude with recommendations to develop a more reliable and valid text leveling tool.

Authors

• Jerome V. D'Agostino, The Ohio State University

• Emily M. Rodgers, The Ohio State University

• Robert H Kelly, The Ohio State University - Columbus