Software to Monitor Growth of K-1 Reading Skills

本计画的目的是设计、发展及验证一个早期阅读发展的电脑化评估工具，称为早期阅读技能持续监测（CMERS）。CMERS将通过提高幼儿园和一年级教师提供优质早期阅读指导的能力，促进一个更健康的社会。CMERS将帮助教师更好地确定特定儿童的持续教学需求，并在教学过程中监测个人成长。目前，没有软件可用于持续监测早期阅读技能。在这个快速通道应用的第一阶段，我们将（a）开发一个项目库，评估早期阅读的三个关键领域--音素意识、字母知识和技能以及阅读连贯文本的流畅性;（B）开发测试阅读流畅性的软件;（c）进行两个实验，评估这些措施的心理测量质量。收集的数据将进行分析，以确定项目难度;确认每个项目与正在评估的结构显著相关;并确认计算机管理所需的多项选择格式在绝对表现水平和随时间推移的增长率方面对儿童的排名与标准考官管理的评估相同。拟议的商业应用：CMERS产品将由国际公认的测试材料出版商Pro-Ed出版。Pro-Ed预计，CMERS产品将成为监测K-1阅读发展的重要工具，供国内和国际专业人士使用。CMERS跟踪的技能是在《教儿童阅读》报告中确定的关键技能，该报告由NICHD和USOE分发。

The objective of this project is to design, develop, and validate a computerized assessment tool of early reading development called Continuous Monitoring of Early Reading Skills (CMERS). CMERS will foster a healthier society by enhancing kindergarten and first-grade teachers abilities to provide quality early reading instruction. CMERS will assist teachers to better determine instructional needs of specific children on an ongoing basis, and to monitor individual growth as instruction is delivered. Presently, no software is available for continuous monitoring of early reading skills. In Phase I of this Fast- Track application we will (a) develop a bank of items assess each of three critical domains of early reading -- phonemic awareness, alphabetic knowledge and skills, and fluency in reading connected text; (b) develop software for the test of reading fluency; and (c) conduct 2 experiments to assess psychometric qualities of the measures. Data collected will be analyzed to establish item difficulty; confirm that each item is significantly related to the construct being assessed; and to confirm that the multiple-choice format required by computer administration ranks children in the same way as standard examiner- administered assessment in both absolute level of performance, and in rate of growth over time. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The CMERS product will be published by Pro-Ed, an internationally recognized publisher of testing materials. Pro-Ed anticipates that the CMERS product will become an important tool for monitoring K-1 reading development, used by professionals both nationally and internationally. Skills tracked by CMERS are ones identified as critical in the report "Teaching Children to Read" which is being disseminated by the NICHD and USOE.