Measuring Reading Competence A Theoretical-Prescriptive Approach
This book concerns measuring reading skills. It is not meant to be a compre hensive survey of reading research or a review of all possible approaches to reading measurement (although considerable attention is given to both subjects). Instead, the purpose
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MEASURING READING COMPETENCE A Theoretical-Prescriptive Approach
STEVEN SCHWARTZ University of Queensland St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Schwartz, Steven. Measuring reading competence. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Reading-Ability testing. 2. Reading-Research. 3. Individualized reading instruction. I. Title. 84-17953 LB1050.46.S38 1984 371.2'6 ISBN 978-1-4899-0389-1 ISBN 978-1-4899-0387-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0387-7
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1984 Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1984. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984
All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
For Tricia 'TIS THE GOOD READER THAT MAKES THE GOOD BOOK.' -
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
PREFACE
This book concerns measuring reading skills. It is not meant to be a comprehensive survey of reading research or a review of all possible approaches to reading measurement (although considerable attention is given to both subjects). Instead, the purpose of this book is to present a coherent, theoretically based approach to measuring reading competence . The ability to measure a phenomenon is an important prerequisite for scientific analysis . As Lord Kelvin said, "One's knowledge of science begins when he can measure what he is speaking about and express it in numbers." Unfortunately, not just any numbers will do. Presently available reading tests provide their users with a plethora of numbers-age levels , percentiles , grade equivalents-but their scientific value is questionable. The problem is that there is more to scientific measurement than merely assigning numbers to arbitrarily chosen behaviors. Scientific measurement occurs only within the confines of a theory, and most reading tests are atheoretical. Recent years have witnessed an explosive growth in reading research. Although there are still many unanswered questions, important decoding skills, language competencies , and cognitive structures underlying reading have been identified and are beginning to be understood . A tentative model of reading, based on recent research findings, is presented in this book. The model is used to demonstrate how theoretically meaningful measures of reading competence may be developed from a cognitive theory of reading. These measures go beyond the mere description of common reading tests; they permit the examiner not only to say that someone is having difficulties learning to read but also to suggest what might be done about the problem. As indicated by this book's subtitle, such measures are both theoretically based and prescriptive. Several preliminary reading decoding and comprehension measures and their development are described in this book . These measures are not meant to be final test versions;
