An Empirical Approach to Developing Learning Progressions for Reading

• In Event: Roundtable Session 42
  In Roundtable Session: Research in Reading and Literacy SIG Roundtable 3: Reading and Writing

Abstract

This session will share results of a new mixed-method approach to developing a learning progression for reading. This new method was used to investigate the question “How can analyses of reading assessment data inform the process of developing learning progressions in reading?” In the first stage of development, we created an instructional order of skills (i.e. the learning progression) through qualitative/ content analysis. In the second stage, the order of skills was re-examined empirically through a calibration process often used to analyze assessment items. We will compare the empirically observed order of skills (i.e. where skills fall on an assessment scale) to the pedagogically determined order of skills (i.e. the most productive order of skills for learning a particular skill).

Authors

• Diana Blythe, Renaissance Learning

• Margaret Heritage, University of California - Los Angeles

• Laurie Borkon, Renaissance Learning