The Development and Validation of The Informal Reading Readiness Inventory: A Method of Individually Appraising the Precursory Skills of the Beginning Reader

157 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1981.To validate the Informal Reading Readiness Inventory (IRRI), kindergarten and first grade studies were conducted in three central Illinois school districts during the 1979-1980 school year. The Kindergarten Study established that a significant mean gain (p < .01) in scores existed when 89 students were tested in September and April with the IRRI. Concurrent validity was determined by April testing with the Metropolitan Readiness Test (r = .51, p < .01, n = 78). An Alpha reliability coefficient of .94 (n = 123) was calculated from fall IRRI data. Sex and ethnic difference was discovered when a two tailed test with an alpha of .20 was applied to fall data. Bias was not found to be significant on spring IRRI data.The First Grade Study, to estimate predictive validity, correlated the IRRI with the California Achievement Test: Reading, 1970 (r = .47, p < .01, n = 69) and the Metropolitan Achievement Test: Total Reading, 1970 (r = .66, p < .01, n = 73). The Alpha reliability coefficient calculated on fall IRRI data was .92 (n = 182). Sex and ethnic difference were evident when tested with alpha set at .20. Nine raters recorded student responses. The variance among raters was not statistically significant. A First Grade Test-Retest Study was conducted over a four week period in August using the same form of the IRRI. A correlation of .66 (p < .01, n = 40) was achieved. All teachers indicated they used IRRI information to group for instruction and found the instrument to be both sensitive to detecting students' abilities and convenient to administer.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD