Judith A. Langer
Published: 1995
Total Pages: 204
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Highlighting the important innovations embodied in the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress' (NAEP) Reading Report Card, this report provides information on how the NAEP's large-scale reading assessment is evolving in response to changing perceptions of reading development and assessment procedures. Included in the report is an overview of the theoretical framework underlying the assessment, a description of and presentation of reading materials used in the assessment, a discussion of students' performance on constructed-response questions, and a presentation of example questions. Major findings discussed in the report include: (1) at grades 4, 8, and 12, students' average performance was highest on multiple choice questions, somewhat lower on short constructed-response questions, and lowest on extended-response questions; (2) the advantage of female students over male students in reading achievement was more evident for the short constructed-response questions than for multiple-choice questions, and the most evident for extended-response questions; and (3) when demonstrating comprehension of texts that they had selected from a compendium of seven short stories, eighth and twelfth graders demonstrated relative success in answering the constructed-response questions. Also included in the report are results of students' performance in reading for different purposes. Finally, two special studies conducted in 1992 are highlighted in the report--a literary selection task and a comparison of oral and written responses to comprehension questions. Contains 31 tables and five figures of data. A procedural appendix is attached. (RS)
