DIFFERENTIATING AMONG STUDENTS: THE VALUE ADDED OF A DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT OF MORPHOLOGICAL PROBLEM SOLVING

In this study, a dynamic assessment was used to measure the morphological analysis skills of participating sixth graders. The primary aim of this research was to examine the utility of this dynamic assessment and specifically to identify whether this measure can differentiate among students based on reading proficiency. Twenty-seven participants, including three identified as needing special education services, underwent two testing sessions. Four assessments were administered: a standardized measure of receptive vocabulary, an oral reading fluency task, and two measures of morphological knowledge, one static in nature and the other a dynamic task which utilizes a standardized graduated prompting approach. Scores on a standardized reading outcome measure were also obtained for each participant. Several significant results can be drawn from this study. Evidence was generated that the dynamic task had high estimates of internal consistency and seemed to perform similarly to other measures of morphological problem-solving found in the literature. Correlations between the dynamic task and measures of vocabulary knowledge and reading fluency were moderate to large in size and positive, also making it consistent with other studies and suggesting that the dynamic measure captures skills related to these critical literacy constructs. Other interesting findings occurred in this study which extend our understanding of the role of morphological problem-solving in reading performance. First, the dynamic task emerged from the analyses as a potentially useful screening measure, capable of differentiating sixth graders at risk for reading difficulty and including procedures and content more sensitive than a static measure of morphological knowledge. The predictive validity of the DATMA was also compared to the oral reading fluency task, a commonly used reading screening measure. Results showed that the dynamic measure added significantly to the prediction of reading outcomes. Exploratory analyses examined the use of the dynamic assessment as a supplemental screening measure to the oral reading fluency task. The dynamic assessment reduced the number of false positives, and in some cases, predicted reading outcomes as well as a combination of the two measures