The effectiveness of teacher-graded norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests and gridded individual results on the reading comprehension of second and third grade pupils

Reading has long been a major concern of persons profoundly interested in the effective advancement of education. The educational decision-makers of the Colonial Period emphasized reading as a means of enriching learning. Boyd Winchester expressed this idea in 1900 in the following lines: A love of reading has a most ennobling and refining tendency; . . . It is essentially a pleasure which is not only good in itself, but enhances many others. By extending the range of our knowledge, by enlarging our powers of sympathy and appreciation, it adds incalculably. . . to the interest we take in the variety of events which form the great world-drama around us. The love of reading is the richest and happiest gift to the children of men. The issues regarding the most profitable modality to enable pupils to realize these experiences through reading became the vanguard in a national consciousness toward reading improvement. The Problem The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to compare the reading achievement of three groups of second grade pupils designated as Group I[lowered A], Group I[lowered B], and Group I[lowered C] according to the teachers' knowledge of the pupils' individual reading competencies and limitations in specific reading skills at the beginning of the semester and C2) to compare the reading achievement of three groups of third grade pupils designated as Group I[lowered A], Group I[lowered B], Group I[lowered C] according to the teachers' knowledge of the pupils' individual reading competencies and limitations in specific reading skills at the beginning of the semester. The Study The subjects were second and third grade pupils who were enrolled in ten schools in Galveston, Texas. The Table of Random Numbers was used to yield sixty second grade pupils and sixty third grade pupils from a population of 1,312 pupils who were enrolled in sixty-five classrooms. The 120 study subjects consisted of boys and girls who represented approximately eighteen racial groups. The sixty study subjects on each grade level were divided into three categories: Group A, Group B, and Group 0. There were twenty pupils in every group on each grade level. The Table of Random Numbers was used to select twenty-nine second grade teachers and thirty-six third grade teachers as study participants. Two instruments were used to yield the data for this investigation: Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and Competency Skills Test. The former test is a norm-referenced achievement test which was used to ascertain the pupils' grade level growth. The latter test is a criterion-referenced test which was used to identify the pupils' reading skill deficiencies in specific areas. The statistical treatment of the data revealed the following: 1. the results of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills posttest was highly significant for Groups A and B on the second and the third grade level, 2. the tests results on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills posttest were statistically significant for Groups B and 0 on both grade levels, 3. there was significant difference in the posttest results of the Competency Skills Test on 'Word Meanings' and 'Reading Comprehension' for Groups A and C on the second and the third grade level, 4. the posttest results of the Competency Skills Test on 'Reading Comprehension' for Groups A and C on the second and the third grade level was statistically significant, 5. there was statistical significance in the posttest results of the Competency Skills Test on 'Study Skills' for Groups A and C on both grade levels, 6. the posttest results of the Competency Skills Test on 'Study Skills' for Group B and C on the second and the third grade level differed significantly, 7. the difference in the posttest results of the Competency Skills Test on the four tested areas for the second and the third grade groups was statistically significant, 8. of the three second grade groups, Grouc C made the lowest mean score on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills posttest and the highest mean score on the Competency Skills Test posttest, and 9. of the three third grade groups. Group C made the lowest mean score on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills posttest and the highest mean score on the Competency Skills Test posttest.Education, College o