Moving Beyond Total Words Written: The Reliability, Criterion Validity, and Time Cost of Alternate Measures for Curriculum-Based Measurement in Writing

Abstract

Curriculum-based measures of written expression have traditionally used total words written or correct word sequences as indices of students' skill levels. Although there are validity data to support these measures, anecdotal evidence indicates that these measures may be unacceptable to some teachers and psychologists. This investigation attempted to determine whether additional hand-scored and computer-scored measures might share more variance with the criterion measures than total words written or correct word sequences. Third and fourth grade students (n = 179) completed 3-min CBM writing probes on two consecutive days, which were scored for nineteen variables. Correlations and regressions of these with criterion variables were calculated. The new measure, correct punctuation marks, shows the most promise for serving as an additional index for writing skill. In addition, this study investigated the time costs associated with scoring these variables. Implications of the analyses, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.

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