Technical Foundations Flashcards

What distinguishes a 'screening' use of aReading from a 'progress monitoring' use?

Answer: Screening identifies all students' risk status at set points; progress monitoring tracks individual growth over time

Universal screening is administered to all students at benchmark periods to identify risk, while progress monitoring uses shorter, more frequent administrations to track individual response to instruction.

Which of the following is a valid reason aReading scores might not be comparable across different testing seasons?

Answer: If different norm tables are applied without adjustment for seasonal norms

Using fall norms to interpret a spring score (or vice versa) would misrepresent a student's standing, so seasonal norms must be applied correctly.

In FastBridge aReading, what does a 'growth projection' feature estimate?

Answer: The score a student is expected to reach by the end of the year based on current performance

Growth projections use a student's current score and normative growth data to estimate an expected end-of-year score, helping set instructional goals.

Which concept explains why two students with the same raw score on different adaptive test forms can receive the same reported score?

Answer: IRT equating places all items on a common scale regardless of which form was administered

IRT-based equating maps item responses from any adaptive form onto a single common scale, making scores comparable regardless of the specific items presented.

What is the recommended minimum score change needed between two aReading administrations to indicate meaningful growth beyond measurement error?

Answer: A difference larger than the standard error of measurement (SEM)

A score change must exceed the SEM to be considered statistically meaningful rather than a result of measurement error.

Which practice violates standard aReading administration protocol and could invalidate scores?

Answer: Reading passages or items aloud to students who do not have an accommodation for read-aloud

Reading items aloud changes the construct being measured (shifting from reading decoding to listening comprehension) unless the student has a documented read-aloud accommodation.

What information does the FastBridge 'Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC)' analysis provide about aReading cut scores?

Answer: It shows the sensitivity and specificity of a cut score in predicting later reading outcomes

ROC analysis evaluates how well a given cut score balances correctly identifying at-risk students (sensitivity) against avoiding false positives (specificity).