Project Description:
Due to the pressing need for assessment tools that teachers can use to efficiently identify children's strengths and weaknesses in English and Spanish, monitor students' learning and inform instruction, the Childrens Learning Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has begun development of the School Readiness Curriculum Based Measurement System (SR-CBMS).
This project will include research-based progress monitoring tools for both English-speaking children and young Spanish-speaking English learners to assess skills in vocabulary, letter identification, letter sounds and phonological awareness. Many children, especially those from ethnic and language minority groups, lag behind in development of these critical school readiness skills, which places them at risk for academic failure.
The SR-CBMS project will be conducted in four phases. In the first phase, researchers will generate assessment items for the four targeted skill areas in both English and Spanish. During the second phase, a pilot study will be conducted to examine the feasibility of initial testing procedures. The third phase will scale and evaluate test items, and the final phase will examine the SR-CBMS reliability and validity.
The SR-CBMS will include two brief parallel English tests and two brief parallel Spanish tests, as well as expanded versions in English and Spanish. Conforming Spanish and English will allow comparisons of bilingual children's competencies across languages. The SR-CBMS also will include an in-service training protocol for teachers and a user's manual.
