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Nic covered this so well. It seems to me that you've developed a sound approach to solving your reading needs. You are exactly right in your misgivings about Accuplacer: of course it's not assessing what you are teaching. It's not designed to. It's a *placement* test. Your self-designed final is what assesses whether students have achieved your outcomes. I'm also not wild about the idea of using SAT or ACT scores as reading placement tests either. They aren't designed for that. -----Original Message----- From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barbara Kirkwood Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 8:12 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: I need help from a reading specialist Hello everyone, I am in need of some help or advice. We have a class (Critical Inquiry) for students who are not reading at collegiate level. We were strictly using the Accuplacer test for placement but moved to using the SAT and ACT reading scores along with Accuplacer for students who have not taken the SAT or ACT. Accuplacer seemed to be inconsistent and we had some students who scored over 600 in our classes while students who scored below 400 were not. The most recent ACT report indicated that the equivalent of an SAT 560 score is academically ready for college. The executive decision here was to use SAT/ACT scores and a cut off for the required class at 450 and below. The question is how to assess whether we are successfully teaching students to read better. We link the Critical Inquiry class with a heavy reading class like psychology, philosophy, or chemistry. We use a reading and study skills text but for the bulk of the work, we use the textbook of the linked class. Students learn a skill and immediately apply it to the linked class. We teach annotation, questioning, and context vocabulary. For a final, we have been having the students read and annotate a published study to see if they understand it and pick out the salient information. I am being tasked to have a pre and post reading test or something to indicate reading at or near college level. I am aware of the Nelson Denny and TABE, but I am looking for anything else that may be appropriate. I tried sending six students to take the Accuplacer at the end of the class: 2 I felt would easily pass, 2 who were questionable, and 2 I thought would not pass the test. One of the top two students did not pass. He came to my office and told me he didn't feel the test was an accurate assessment of his ability to get information from text, which I thought was an interesting perception on his part. The other top student did pass along with one of the questionable students. Thus, I have questions about whether Accuplacer is assessing what we are teaching. Perhaps we need to develop an in house assessment and work towards establishing reliability and validity. This is where I need help and advice. Has anyone else developed such an instrument and have you established validity and reliability? Is there anyone who could advise me on accomplishing such a task? I have spoken to our reading experts in the education department but their expertise applies primarily to elementary school ages. Is there something else we might be using? I would appreciate any advice you can give me. Barbara Barbara L.S. Kirkwood Associate Director for Group Academic Support CASA - Center for Academic Support and Advancement Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (260) 481-6881 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To access the LRNASST-L archives or User Guide, or to change your subscription options (including subscribe/unsubscribe), point your web browser to http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html To contact the LRNASST-L owner, email [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To access the LRNASST-L archives or User Guide, or to change your subscription options (including subscribe/unsubscribe), point your web browser to http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html To contact the LRNASST-L owner, email [log in to unmask]