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NARAP Newsletter

July 2006

• Conference Presentations
• Papers
• Meetings/Definition Panel
• Projects

Dear General Advisory Committee Members:

Save the date! December 8, 2006 is the date of the General Advisory Committee meeting. More information to follow!

We have been very busy in the past year! Most of the activity this year has been on individual NARAP projects. This has been reflected in our many conference presentations, papers, and projects. Additionally, the NARAP telephone conference calls have been taking place on a regular basis. Please check out the conference presentations and papers posted on the NARAP website:

Conference Presentations

Learning Disabilities Association (LDA) -- NARAP had a session on "Creating Accessible Large Scale Assessments" at the Learning Disabilities Association (LDA) 43rd Annual International conference on February 26-March 1, 2006.

Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) -- On April 7, 2006, NARAP had a session entitled "Creating Accessible Large-Scale Reading Assessments" at the Council for Exceptional Children in Salt Lake City, Utah.

American Educational Research Association (AERA) -- On April 10, 2006, NARAP had a session presented "Increasing the Accessibility of Large Scale Assessments of Reading Proficiency for Students with Disabilities" at the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco, California.

National Council on Measurement Education (NCME) -- On April 10, 2006, NARAP had a session "Designing Accessible Reading Assessments: A Research Based Approach" at the National Council on Measurement Education.

Association of Test Publishers (ATP) -- On February 7, 2006, NARAP had a session "Improving the Accessibility of Large-scale Reading Assessments for Students with Disabilities" at the Association of Test Publishers in Orlando, Florida.

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Papers

Principles and Issues Paper -- Several individuals and organizations, such as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, have provided valuable feedback on our disability papers and their suggestions have been incorporated into the brief reports. The papers are currently undergoing final revisions and are expected to be completed soon. These papers will be posted on the NARAP website.

Focus Group Paper -- In this paper, results from focus groups about definitions of reading will be reported. Data collection took place in the spring and summer of 2005, NARAP researchers conducted focus groups at professional conferences or by telephone or the World Wide Web. The goal of this study was to better understand researcher and practitioner perspectives on definitions of reading. The report is currently under revision and will be published later this year.

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Meetings/Definition Panel

The final meeting of the Definition Panel of the National Accessible Reading Assessment Projects (NARAP) was held September 19-20, 2005 in Washington, DC. Notes are on the NARAP website. This meeting was the culmination of the activities of the 15-member Definition Panel. The activities were designed to provide input related to the definition of the construct of "reading proficiency" as a basis for research and development for accessible large-scale assessments.

The September meeting started with opening remarks from Martha Thurlow and Cara Cahalan-Laitusis and opening comments by the project officer and commissioner of the National Center for Special Education Research in the Institute for Education Sciences. The first half of day one was spent presenting activities and accomplishments since the January meeting, while the second part involved small groups looking at reading standards and students with specific disabilities. The second day focused on discussion related to future directions and current concerns.

A variety of professional perspectives were shared on NARAP topics including the focus group report, disability reports, and the position paper. Here is a brief update:

Focus Groups -- Chris Johnstone discussed the protocol and the results of the focus group study. Results were consistent among participants from the large conferences and the web-based teleconferences. Most people preferred having the main emphasis of the definition focused on understanding. They also believed that decoding is important. "Translating text to speech" was viewed as problem area for a variety of readers with disabilities. In general, the groups provided feedback that "auditorization" was viewed as problematic for the construct of reading.

Disability Paper -- Overall, the Definition Panel offered a diversity of opinions and professional perspectives about the disability papers. Some members thought that the papers provided a great overview of the different disabilities and characteristics of these students. Other members felt that the papers needed a stronger research base and more current information about specific disability groups.

Position Paper -- The group discussed a number of issues, such as the use of the NAEP framework, the treatment of accommodations, and the empirical evidence.

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Projects

NARAP phone conferences -- Telephone conferences have been taking place on a regular basis. The team plans to have a face to face meeting in the near future.

Technology-Assisted Reading Assessment (TARA) Project.
A new project has been funded to look at accessible reading assessments for students with visual impairments. This proposal will extend NARAP to include students with visual impairments by (a) examining the psychometric properties of current state assessments for students with visual impairment, (b) conducting research toward the development of an alternate assessment of technology-assisted reading for students with visual impairments, and (c) including students with visual impairments in an extended field test to examine the validity and reliability of both the NARAP assessment and the alternate assessment of technology-assisted reading.

Remember to mark your calendar -- December 8, 2006. More information will be sent to General Advisory Committee members in the coming months.

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