| The present study examined the stability (i.e., 4-month and 12-month test-retest reliability) of six selected school-based indices of adequate reading progress. The total sampling frame included between 3970 and 5655 schools depending on the index and research question. Each school had at least 40 second-grade students that had complete Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) data for the time periods in question. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) scores were used to examine school-wide adequate reading progress. The stability of those indices from semester-to-semester and from year- to-year across the 2005-2006, 2006-2007, and 2007-2008 school years was examined. Adequate progress was defined as students improving their instructional recommendation (i.e., reducing their level of risk) or remaining at benchmark (i.e., remaining on track) over a specified period of time. The six indices were as follows: (1) outcome percent established, (2) percent adequate progress, (3) intensive percent adequate progress, (4) strategic percent adequate progress, (5) barely benchmark percent adequate progress, and (6) school-wide high rates of adequate progress. The indices were intended to provide a snapshot of how well a school's reading instruction is meeting student needs.;Based on the analysis, the stability coefficients ranged from .10 to .90 indicating that certain indices had higher stability coefficients than others. Overall, the year-to-year indices tended to be more stable that the semester-to-semester indices. Between 143 and 203 schools had school-wide high rates of adequate progress over a two- and three-year period. These findings indicate that schools can be generally effective in helping their students achieve high rates of adequate reading progress and that schools are able to maintain and support high rates of adequate progress for consecutive cohorts of second- grade students. Results are discussed within a broader framework of school effectiveness indices and response to intervention. |
