Date of Award
12-1-2010
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Educational Psychology
First Advisor
Mundschenk, Nancy
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to determine the technical adequacy of the Core Skills Algebra curriculum-based measure for students enrolled in algebra I courses at the high school level. Due to the dearth of curriculum-based measures available to educators at the secondary school level, the Core Skills Algebra curriculum-based measure was developed to provide educators with a tool for monitoring student progress in algebra I courses. This study focused on the technical adequacy of the Core Skills Algebra curriculum-based measure examining reliability, validity and its sensitivity to student growth. Scores were collected from four forms of the Core Skills Algebra curriculum-based measure for a sample of 353 freshmen from two high schools enrolled in algebra I courses during the fall and spring semesters. Alternate-form and test-retest reliability were examined and strong correlations were found. To assess concurrent validity, data were collected from four criterion measures including scores from the EXPLORE achievement test, algebra course grades and overall grade point average (GPA). Concurrent validity was moderate for EXPLORE composite and math subtest scores and weak to moderate for algebra course grades and overall GPA. The extent to which the Core Skills Algebra measure reflects student growth was also examined. The results suggest that the measure is able to distinguish between student scores by classroom type (i.e., accelerated algebra, algebra I, low achieving, and special education). Weekly growth rates for each high school were lower than the desired .5 indicating a growth of one problem every two weeks. High School 1 had a weekly growth rate of .25 and High School 2 had a weekly growth rate of .19.
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