Assessing Comprehension in Kindergarten through Third Grade

Traditional measures of reading ability designed for younger students typically focus on componential skills (e.g., decoding, vocabulary) and the items are often presented in a discrete and decontextualized format. The current study was designed to explore whether it was feasible to develop a more integrated, scenario-based assessment of comprehension for younger students. A secondary goal was to examine developmental differences in item performance when administration was in listening versus reading modalities. Cross-sectional differences were examined across kindergarten to third grade on a scenario-based assessment comprised of literal comprehension, inference, vocabulary, and background knowledge items. The assessment, originally targeted for third grade, was administered one-on-one to 141 third grade and 485 second grade students. It was adapted for and administered to kindergarten (n = 390) and first grade (n = 419) students by reducing the number of items and switching to a listening comprehension method of administration. Each grade was significantly more accurate than the previous grade on overall performance and background knowledge. A regression analysis showed significant variance associated with background knowledge in predicting comprehension, even after controlling for grade. A deeper analysis of item performance across grades was conducted to examine what elements worked well and where improvements should be made in adapting comprehension assessments for use with young children. [This article was published in "Topics in Language Disorders" v36 n4 p334-355 Oct-Dec 2016 (ED596235).]