Findings from the Validity Study
The independent research firm also calculated the validity coefficient for the Reading Measure . The Lexile measures from the reading portion of the Scantron Performance Series fall assessment were correlated separately with Administration 1 and Administration 2 Lexile measures from the Reading Measure to obtain the convergent validity coefficient. The Scantron Performance Series assessment Lexile measures can be interpreted the same way as the Lexile measures on the Reading Measure . Convergent validity is one source of construct validity, and it shows the degree to which two different measures of constructs that are theoretically similar are related to each other (Campbell & Fiske, 1959). One would conclude that a measure has convergent validity if it is highly correlated to another measure that assesses the same underlying construct. Therefore, the current validity study was conducted under the assumption that both the Lexile measure from the Reading Measure and the Lexile measure from the reading portion of the Scantron Performance Series assessment are comparable assessments of reading ability with similar theoretical underpinnings (Stenner, Smith, & Burdick, 1983). A final sample of 6,148 students who had complete data on both the Reading Measure and the Scantron Performance Series assessment Lexile measure were used for the validity analyses. Both administrations of the Reading Measure correlated highly and significantly with the Scantron Performance Series assessment (r = .83 for Administration 1, r = .78 for Administration 2, and r = .84 when the mean scores for Administrations 1 and 2 were used). Table 2 presents these coefficients. Overall, these data are strong evidence of the convergent validity of the Reading Measure .
Table 2. Convergent Validity Coefficients for the Reading Measure
Administration
Validity
r
N
Administration 1
.83
6,148
Administration 2
.78
6,148
Overall
.84
6,148
Note : r indicates Pearson correlation coefficient and N indicates the sample size.
8
SCHOLASTIC RESEARCH & VALIDATION
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs