Degrees of Reading Power. A Powerful System for Measuring Reading Comprehension

Transcription

1 Degrees of Reading Power A Powerful System for Measuring Reading Comprehension

2 Introducing Degrees of Reading Power Every school faces the essential challenge of preparing students for the literacy demands of the 21 st century Degrees of Reading Power (DRP ) is a measurement system that helps educators understand each student s reading comprehension ability. Results from the DRP Core Comprehension Tests help teachers scaffold their instruction with the right degree of intensity and challenge to ensure that students are on a path to College and Career Readiness. Data from the DRP also help school leadership monitor reading growth and determine the efficacy of their curriculum so that timely interventions can be made. Academic progress depends on literacy skills. A key factor in school improvement is an emphasis on developing the literacy skills needed for all students in all subject areas. A first step toward that improvement is access to coherent information about students reading abilities and instructional needs, and a view of the trajectory of their progress. The DRP provides real-world data for educators to monitor the progress of students as together they work to meet the literacy demands of the 21 st century. A powerful system for measuring reading comprehension As a universal screener and growth monitor, the DRP assessment program provides actionable data that drive instruction and higher levels of reading achievement. With the data from DRP, teachers can: Set rigorous yet realistic goals to College and Career Readiness Track progress on the Common Core State Standards for Reading Make informed instructional decisions Empower students to read independently and reach higher levels of achievement Research-based components make the DRP a program that drives instruction and learning 1. Assessments Tools to measure reading comprehension levels and monitor growth for readers in Grades 2 12 and Adults 2. Reports Details of reading ability are provided on student, class, teacher, school, and district level reports 3. DRPgBookLink Database resource of reading materials calibrated to the DRP scale 4. DRP Analyzer Free online tool that evaluates local instructional text resources using the DRP scale DRP IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE! SCORING, REPORTING, AND DATA MANAGEMENT ARE FULLY AUTOMATED, PROVIDING YOU WITH IMMEDIATE RESULTS. 5. Professional Development Workshops and webinars on using DRP results and effective instructional strategies for successful reading comprehension in the content areas 2 drp.questarai.com/home/

3 The Power of the DRP Scale A research-based initiative to bring reader and text together RECOGNIZED AS A VALID MEASURE OF TEXT COMPLEXITY BY INDEPENDENT CCSS RESEARCHERS Help students meet the demands of higher education and the workplace Degrees of Reading Power reports on a scientifically developed scale, recognized as a valid measure of text complexity by independent researchers for the CCSS. It provides measures of student reading ability and text demand in a single metric. The DRP Scale of Text Complexity is an equal interval, vertical scale ranging from units. Lower units are associated with primers for emerging readers; higher units with professional journals. Why this information matters in the classroom Reading Support: When teachers know the difficulty of a text relative to the reading abilities of their students, they know the levels of support their students will need to access the text. Reading Growth: When teachers have objective, quantitative goals, they can set clear and obtainable growth expectations for students. Text Complexity: When teachers know their students independent reading levels, they can confidently assign challenging work that their students can successfully handle. Average Text Complexity of Real-World Texts and Reading Benchmarks on the DRP Scale Experimental Science Journals, Professional Journals First Year College 70 Front Page 68 of National Newspapers State Drivers 64 License Manuals High School Teen Magazines Middle School 56 Elementary School 50 Primary School Stories in Primers DRP research shows the median text complexity levels of post-secondary texts far exceed the median levels of text complexity of high school texts. To help students prepare for the level of reading they will need to succeed in college and career, teachers need to provide them with more complex text and develop instructional strategies to help students access the text. Textbook Difficulty in DRP Units Difficulty of High School and College by Content Area High School N = 109 Humanities Natural Sciences Social Sciences College N = 58 High School N = 30 With the DRP program, teachers have tools to drive higher achievement for all students. Teachers can reliably identify student reading ability through the DRP Core Comprehension Tests and can locate appropriate independent reading through the DRP BookLink database. Educators can close the gap with a scientifically designed program and data that track progress toward new standards and new expected outcomes. Hardest Books Easiest Books College N = 52 High School N = % of Books 100% of Books College N = 137 College High School Based on an analysis of textbooks submitted by institutional users of DRP tests. 4 drp.questarai.com/home/

4 How the DRP Measures Reading Comprehension DRP TEST ITEMS ARE CAREFULLY DESIGNED TO: Function as an integral part of the text, not as discrete questions about the text Assess the reader s ability to use the information within the text Designed to measure levels of reading comprehension for all readers DRP tests provide a diagnostic, criterion-referenced measure of how closely and deeply students read and comprehend informational texts at different levels of text complexity. Each DRP test consists of nonfiction passages with embedded probes to determine how well students understand the surrounding text. The students must choose the correct answers from a set of carefully selected common vocabulary words. For each item, they choose the word that makes the best sense within the context of the passage. The reading task of each DRP test item supports the development of close reading skills and requires thought and analysis. DRP results help educators understand how well students derive meaning from the texts they are reading. How Your Students Experience the DRP Student friendly and now online! The web-based test allows students to use any computer in your district. Scoring is automatic, with data available immediately following testing. Remember: Choose the word that makes the best sense in the blank. Fill in the circle in front of the word you have chosen. Some animals feed only once a day. Others 1 more often. Some have many meals each day. The United States once had just 13 states. This 2 has changed. Today there are 50 states. Storms can do great harm to beaches. A lot of 3 may be lost. It may take years for the shore to recover. 1 \ climb \ wash \ eat \ fight 2 \ road \ store \ trade \ number 3 \ wheat \ sand \ oil \ paper Engage students active metacognitive behaviors as they read the item Reduce likelihood of guessing strategies, associative processes, and other non-reading activities The power of the DRP item format is that it generates strong and reliable measures of reading comprehension for all students at all ability levels. The DRP answers the educational challenge of how to accurately determine how well a student is able to engage in close, careful, and critical reading of increasingly complex text. The year 1783 was an important one for fl ight. The fi rst recorded launching of a hot-air balloon occurred in France then. This balloon, built by Joseph and Etienne Montgolfi er, was a cloth bag 36 feet across. It was lined with paper and fastened with buttons. The bag wasn t closed all the way around. Rather, there was a 8 at the bottom. The balloon was positioned above a fire so hot air could rise into the opening. That is how the balloon was 9. Once inflated, it was released into the sky. That same summer, a second kind of balloon made its first flight. It was built by the scientist, Jacques Charles. Charles did not put hot air into this balloon. Instead, he used a different 10. Charles used hydrogen, a newly discovered gas that was lighter than air. Charles believed hydrogen balloons would float longer than hot-air balloons. Charles launched his first balloon from a Paris park jammed with spectators. So many people came to watch that the army was called This out. sample That is how is excerpted large the from 11 a passage was. that The measures 11 a) 53 piece DRP units. b) chamber balloon rose into the clouds and disappeared. It came down miles away, where people knew nothing of flying balloons. Its descent so alarmed local residents that they attacked the balloon with pitchforks. Then they tied it to a horse, which dragged it over the countryside. Soon, the balloon was completely 12. To keep other balloons from being ruined, the king sent out notices about them. 8 a) rope b) sail c) wheel d) hole e) lamp 9 a) turned b) filled c) stored d) lowered e) painted 10 a) name b) field c) color d) uniform e) substance c) crowd d) engine e) pattern 12 a) 6 drp.questarai.com/home/ destroyed b) burned c) dried d) folded e) covered Online Format New! The DRP is now available online. Our students are digital natives; they are familiar with computers and many are taking high-stakes assessments on them. Our students have little time to wait. They face higher academic expectations and need to understand their goals early in the school year. The DRP Online provides immediate feedback on students reading comprehension levels so that the important work can begin. ANF ; STS ; SHD PX-P 08 DRP Form-PX-P_FINAL.indd 4 8/4/ :53:37 AM Online Features Untimed Test In this new format, students receive unique logins to access their secure test. The online format allows students to flag test items and go back to those items later. Before they log off, students will receive a list of flagged items as well as any items that they did not answer. These prompts help students demonstrate their reading skills to the fullest. The test interface also contains accommodation features including sizing tools, highlighters, and text underlining tools. 7 Page 4 (Go to the Next Page) Because the DRP measures deep reading and not speed of reading, it has been designed as an untimed test. Most students complete the assessment in 45 minutes. As an untimed test, scores are comparable regardless of the amount of time students are engaged in the test.

5 Create a Trajectory to College and Career Readiness To meet the reading demands our students will face after high school, the Common Core State Standards specify that students should be exposed to texts of increasing complexity during their elementary and secondary school years. The DRP helps educators meet this challenge by reporting student results on a research-validated and nationally recognized scale, and links those results to textbooks, works of literature, and popular fiction and nonfiction. THE DRP SUPPORTS CRITICAL DEMANDS OF THE COMMON CORE READING STANDARDS: Evaluating text complexity levels needed to reach College and Career Readiness Placing emphasis on reading of nonfiction and informational texts Expecting accountability for independent reading of textbooks and content area texts Supporting the development of close reading skills How the DRP aligns to the Common Core State Standards DRP Core Comprehension Tests provide diagnostic information about students strengths and weaknesses, and report that information in the context of the College and Career Anchor Standards. Key Ideas and Details These items require readers to: Read closely to determine explicit meaning of the text Make logical conclusions based on evidence in the text Make generalizations from supporting details in the text Craft and Structure These items require readers to: Determine technical, figurative, or connotative meaning of words and phrases Understand and apply language rules and patterns that impact text structure Recognize semantic relationships Integration of Knowledge and Ideas These items require readers to: Infer connections among ideas in the text such as cause and effect, comparison and contrast, and fact and opinion in order to construct meaning Interpret significant points in text based on the author s presentation of reasons and evidence Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity The DRP provides a direct measure of CCSS Reading Standard 10, with all assessment items emphasizing the close, careful, and critical thinking/reading actions that lead to comprehension of complex texts. DRP SCALE OF TEXT COMPLEXITY AND CCSS GRADE BANDS GRADES 2 3 GRADES 4 5 GRADES 6 8 GRADES 9 10 GRADES COLLEGE & CAREER GRADES K Little Bear Bud, Not Buddy My Five Senses Are You My Mother? Green Eggs and Ham Bats, Creatures of the Night Sarah, Plain and Tall The Longitude Prize Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist A Night to Remember Alice s Adventures in Wonderland Black, Blue and Gray: African Americans in the Civil War Exemplary titles from CCSS Appendix B America s Constitution: A Biography Declaration of Independence 8 drp.questarai.com/home/

6 Data Reports for Educators Teachers and Administrators have immediate access to four powerful performance reports DRP Individual Performance Chart This report provides data on the reading power of an individual student. The key data in this report are the measures of a student s independent reading level (90% comprehension of text) and instructional reading level (70% to 80% comprehension of text). To help teachers understand a student s reading skills according to the Common Core Anchor Standards for Reading, this report provides interpretive suggestions for further instruction. DRP School or District Profile This report, available at the district, school, teacher, or classroom level, summarizes the data points of the Individual Performance Charts and provides a frequency distribution of the group s DRP scores. Like the Individual Performance Chart, these scores are linked to the exemplar texts in Appendix B of the Common Core State Standards, and to standard textbooks and external benchmarks. May w Kenneth Cora u 75 District: Questar School District School: Questar Elementary School Examiner: Jones Class: 6-A v 05/08/13 uinstructional DRP scores reflect the most difficult text students can read and comprehend with instructional support; Independent DRP scores reflect the most difficult text they can read independently. vstudents reading skills in three CCSS areas are shown along with suggestions for needed level of instruction. wstudents scores are plotted on the DRP scale with connections made to CCSS exemplar texts and benchmarks. u 75 District: Questar School District School: Questar Elementary School uthe distribution of the group s DRP scores is shown graphically to assist educators in planning for differentiated instruction. vsummary information of the group s performance, measures of central tendency, and CCSS Text Complexity Expectations are also displayed. 05/08/13 52 v drp.questarai.com/home/

7 Data Reports for Educators DRP Alphabetic Roster This report provides summary information on test performance organized at the district, school, or classroom level. DRP CCSS Diagnostic Summary Data reports show students abilities relative to Common Core Anchor Standards This report, available at the district, school, and classroom level, helps educators set priorities for reading instruction as they relate to the Common Core State Standards. District: Questar School District School: Questar Elementary School District: Questar School District School: Questar Elementary School 05/08/13 05/08/13 v u v u w ucomprehensive data are provided for each student in the group, including Independent and Instructional Level DRP Scores, national percentile rank, number of items correct on each passage of the DRP test administered, and CCSS diagnostic scores. v Performance in relation to the CCSS Reading Standard 10 shows student performance in relation to CCSS grade level text complexity expectations for the end of the school year (Below Grade Level, On Grade Level, or Above Grade Level). ustudents in the APPLY range have demonstrated an understanding and effective use of the skills and are prepared to interact with more complex text. vstudents in the PRACTICE area showed some understanding of comprehension skills and strategies in the cluster of items and need to continue to improve reading skills. wteach means that students scored very low on this cluster of items and need to be introduced or reintroduced to the skills and strategies in these standards. 12 drp.questarai.com/home/

8 Instructional Implications The DRP helps teachers differentiate instruction in the content area classroom Every day, in every classroom, teachers are faced with the task of making required texts accessible to students. With data from the DRP, this task of differentiation is made easier and more effective. DRP Data in Action Professional Learning Students need prepared and knowledgeable educators in order to reach their reading goals When your school chooses the DRP program to support student reading achievement, Questar provides the important first step: program training. And to keep your new reading system at peak effectiveness, we also provide personalized opportunities for teachers to build on their expertise and share their practice with each other. Webinar Events Free implementation webinars are live, moderated monthly events for any educator using the DRP. The 20-minute webinars provide overviews on subjects such as: Getting Started with DRP, Best Test Practices, Interpreting DRP Reports, and other important topics. With a DRP test report of students reading abilities, a teacher knows that Jacob and other above grade level readers will be able to access meaning from the textbook with typical instructional support. The teacher can assign independent reading activities that would help him go beyond the text and engage in critical thinking tasks. For Minda and other students below grade level, the teacher will know the level of support needed to access the text. The teacher can assign independent reading that will help Minda build vocabulary and background knowledge. In-Person Implementation Training This day-long, in-person training is conducted by a certified educator and DRP trainer at your location. DRP implementation training will include: a hands-on experience with the program, including the DRP Online Administration System; overviews of data and reporting; and ways to apply the data to your instructional practice. Choose a train-the-trainer model, a direct-to-teacher model, or a leadership/power teacher model. Job-Embedded Data Coaching This professional learning session is personalized to your specific teaching challenges. Conducted by a certified educator and DRP instructor, this training helps teachers, leadership, and/or district support staff work with data from multiple sources including the DRP to inform the learning community s instructional practices. Through a collaborative process, education professionals will feel more comfortable using data and will have the knowledge they need to apply data effectively and consistently. 14 drp.questarai.com/home/

9 The Degrees of Reading Power is the only test that challenges students to demonstrate their understanding of what they read, as they read. Such thinking while reading is what the new Common Core State Standards demand for students to reach the reading proficiency levels required in the competitive workplaces and schools of today and tomorrow. Dr. Roger Farr Professor Emeritus, Indiana University Member of the Reading Hall of Fame Past President of the International Reading Association Interested in learning more? Contact us for a personalized webinar. 4 Hardscrabble Heights P.O. Box 382 Brewster, NY DRP@QuestarAI.com Degrees of Reading Power, DRP, and DRP BookLink are registered trademarks of Questar Assessment, Inc. Copyright 2013 Questar Assessment, Inc. All rights reserved. 16 QAI