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A formative evaluation of the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment
System was conducted to ensure that (1) the leveling of the texts is reliable and (2) the reading cores are valid and accurately identify each student's reading level. The purpose of the study was twofold. The first was to examine every book, at every level, for the reliability of its designated level within a broader literacy framework and across corresponding fiction and nonfiction genres. That is, is the readability of the books consistent across the fiction and nonfiction domains? For example, are the level G fiction and nonfiction books not only typical level G books, but do corresponding fiction and nonfiction books at this level have the same degree of readability? The second purpose of the evaluation was to determine the correlation between the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment
System and other reading assessments. That is, to what extent is the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment
System associated with other valid reading assessments?
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order to determine the reliability and validity of the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment
System, the following three research questions guided the formative evaluation:
Research Question 1
- How reliable is the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment
System? That is, how consistent and stable is the information derived from the reading books?
- Does each book of the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment
System consistently occupy the same position on the gradient of readability, based on multiple readings by age-appropriate students? That is, does each book, level A–Z represent a degree of increased difficulty that is consistent with other Fountas and Pinnell leveled texts.
Research Question 2
- To what extent are the gradients of difficulty for fiction and nonfiction books aligned within the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment
System? Do fiction and nonfiction books represent similar levels of difficulty within similar levels of reading?
Research Question 3
- To what extent is the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment
System associated with other established reading assessments?
- What is the convergent validity between the System 1 and Reading Recovery® assessment texts?
- What is the convergent validity between the System 2 and the Slosson Oral Reading Test—Revised (SORT-R3) and the Degrees of Reading Power® (DRP)?
Click here to read the Executive Summary.
Click here to read the Full Report.
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