Scientifically Based Reading Research (SBRR)

• The Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments demonstrate validity and reliability.

The Center for Innovation in Assessment has completed several studies that establish the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments as both valid and reliable. The results of these studies are being compiled as technical reports for each grade level. The technical reports for Grade 1 and Grade 2 are completed and available. The technical report for kindergarten is due in Winter 2006. For specific data analysis results, refer to the Techincal Reports, by clicking on the references, listed below..

Center for Innovation in Assessment. (2005). TheIndiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments- Grade 1 Technical Report. Bloomington, IN: Author. Click here to view report

Center for Innovation in Assessment. (2005). TheIndiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments- Grade 2 Technical Report. Bloomington, IN: Author. Click here to view report

Center for Innovation in Assessment. (Forthcoming, 2006). TheIndiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments- Kindergarten Technical Report. Bloomington, IN: Author.

• The Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments were specifically developed to meet Indiana’s Academic Standards for Reading.


Indiana’s Academic Standards have been identified as “among the clearest, most understandable, and most rigorous state Standards in the nation” by Achieve, Inc., a nationally recognized independent organization that evaluates states’ Academic Standards. In addition, experts with the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation awarded Indiana’s Academic Standards an “A” rating. While using the Standards themselves as SBRR may not be appropriate, you may wish to acknowledge the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments as being Standards-based.

Source: Indiana State Board of Education. (2004). Indiana’s Academic Standards. Indianapolis, IN: Author.

• The skill areas assessed by the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments have been identified by the National Reading Panel as “key skills...to reading achievement.”


“The National Reading Panel (NRP) issued a report in 2000 that responded to a Congressional mandate to help parents, teachers, and policymakers identify key skills and methods central to reading achievement. The Panel was charged with reviewing research in reading instruction (focusing on critical years of kindergarten through third grade) and identifying methods that consistently relate to reading success.” The key skills identified by the NRP as central to reading achievement are: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and text comprehension. The Indiana Reading Assessment assesses all of these skills except for fluency. The Resource and Intervention Guide accompanying the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments, however, does include some informal fluency assessments for teachers.

Sources:
Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA). (2001). Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. Ann Arbor, MI: Author. National Institute for Literacy. (2000). The Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read. Washington, DC: Author.

• The design of the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments addresses all eight principles identified as important for an effective literacy assessment.
  
  The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) “is dedicated to providing high-quality, research-based resources to educators and policymakers in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.” Based on a research-based book by J.D. Cooper, Literacy: Helping Children Construct Meaning, NCREL has identified eight principles of effective literacy assessment. For specifics on how the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments include all eight principles, click here.
  
  

  Sources: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory: www.ncrel.org Cooper, J.D. (1997). Literacy: Helping Children Construct Meaning (3rd ed.) Boton: Houghton Mifflin Company.