Towards a Curriculum‐based Passage Reading Test for Monitoring the Performance of Low‐progress Readers Using Standardised Passages: a validity study

Abstract

Findings on the development of a curriculum‐based passage reading test using five standardised passages (the WARP) are provided, based on a validity study involving a sample of 50 primary school students. Performance on the five passages was compared with performance on two standardised tests of reading and a phonic word attack skills test, demonstrating good criterion validity with reading accuracy (0.83‐0.87), reading comprehension (0.67‐0.72) and word attack skills (0.75‐0.78). Intercorrelations between the five passages were shown to be very high (0.94‐0.96), demonstrating excellent alternate forms reliability. The WARP thereby demonstrates promise as a quick, cost‐effective measure of reading performance with the additional benefit of allowing regular tracking of performance over time.