BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH & TEACHING > Meet Us > BRT News > About Us
About Us
Goal: Establish a computer-based vertically scaled English language arts (combined reading and writing) and mathematics test with three levels of difficulty – low, mid, and high – that students can take after completing 15 items for placement into these levels. This type of testing provides an adaptive form to ensure students do not take items for which they have a low probability of answering correctly or do not take items that are excessively easy (g., waste time and fatigue students)….
Read more
RFA: Special Education Research and Development Center Program (CFDA# 84.324C) Topic Two: Special Education R & D Center on Assessment and Accountability, Gerald Tindal (UO), Project Director & Co-PI, Ann Schulte (NCSU), Co-PI, Stephen N. Elliott (ASU), Co-PI, Joseph Stevens (UO), Co-PI In this application, we propose a National Research and Development Center on Assessment and Accountability for Special Education to develop and test various approaches for measuring the achievement growth of students with and without disabilities. We reference these…
Read more
Funding Source: Office of Special Education Programs, Stepping Up Technology Implementation Pur p os e : The field lacks a comprehensive assessment of children’s early risk for reading disabilities (RD) that can be seamlessly used during the critical preschool‐ to‐ kindergarten transition. In addition, fundamentally different approaches to assessment across settings threaten the promise of effective early RD prevention. Consequently, we propose to develp strategies and resources to bridge assessment and data‐based decision‐making practices across preschool and kindergarten to promote…
Read more
Computerized Oral Reading Evaluation (CORE) PI: Joseph F. T. NeseCo-PI: Akihito Kamata (Southern Methodist University) This research project is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A140203 to the University of Oregon. Purpose: The purpose of this project is to develop and validate a new computerized assessments system of oral reading fluency (ORF), called Computerized Oral Reading Evaluation (CORE). CORE will contain an automated scoring algorithm based on a speech recognition engine and a…
Read more
Date: Spring 2016 The Oregon Extended Assessment was redesigned in the 2014-15 school year in order to develop a vertical scale that would support modeling of academic growth for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The test design was also structured to support future tablet administrations. Behavioral Research & Teaching will be conducting a study in the spring of 2016 where students who take the ORExt will participate in the assessment in the typical format (paper/pencil), will wait approximately two weeks,…
Read more
Tindal, G., Alonzo, J., & Anderson, D. (2009). Local normative data on easyCBM® reading and mathematics: Fall 2009 (Technical Report No. 0918). Eugene, OR: Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon. TechRpt_0918
Documenting Reading Achievement and Growth for Students Taking Alternate Assessments. Students with disabilities have been included in state accountability systems for more than a decade; however, only in the past few years have alternate assessments of alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) become stable enough to allow examination of these students’ achievement growth. Using data from Oregon’s AA-AAS in Reading during the period 2008–2009 to 2010–2011, we examined the achievement growth for a sample of 1,061 elementary students using two growth models:…
Read more
Achievement Gaps for Students with Disabilities: Stable, Widening, or Narrowing on a State-wide Reading Comprehension Test. Reading comprehension growth trajectories from 3rd to 7th grade were estimated for 99,919 students on a state reading comprehension assessment. We examined whether differences between students in general education (GE) and groups of students identified as exceptional learners were best characterized as stable, widening, or narrowing. The groups included students with disabilities (SWD) from 8 exceptionality groups and 2 groups of academically gifted students…
Read more
Patterns of Statewide Test Participation for Students With Significant Cognitive Disabilities. Students with significant cognitive disabilities are eligible to participate in two statewide testing options for accountability: alternate assessments or general assessments with appropriate accommodations. Participation guidelines are generally quite vague, leading to students “switching” test participation between years. In this study, we tracked test participation for two cohorts of students with a documented disability over 3 years. Results suggested approximately 25% of students who initially took the alternate assessment…
Read more
Kahn, J., Nese, J. F. T., Alonzo, J. (2016). Teacher survey of the accessibility and text features of the computerized oral reading evaluation (CORE). (Technical Report No. 1601). Eugene, OR: Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon. There is strong theoretical support for oral reading fluency (ORF) as an essential building block of reading proficiency. The current study was part of a larger project to develop and validate a computerized ORF assessment system–Computerized Oral Reading Evaluation(CORE)–to reduce limitations in current…
Read more