The Contribution of Student Response Processes to Validity Analyses for Instructionally Supportive Assessments

Abstract

Understanding test score meaning for students with (learning) disabilities (SWD) is both complex and understudied. By definition, SWD bring non-typical processing to their learning, and therefore, their performance on any particular academic assessment. The combination of response-to-intervention (RTI) and formative assessment, particularly curriculum-based measurement (CBM), provides an explicit system for better understanding and validating instructional decision-making using student responses. Monitoring progress with only oral reading fluency mirrors trends in CBM research and has predominated over all other CBM measures. Typically, CBM has consisted of brief one-to-three minute indicators of proficiency in a particular academic skill, although this time limit has been extended for more-complex domains, such as reading comprehension, and mathematics. RTI entails “student-centered assessment models that use problem-solving and research-based methods to identify and address learning difficulties in children high-quality classroom instruction, universal screening, continuous progress monitoring, research-based interventions, and fidelity of instructional interventions”.