State of Nebraska Reading Comprehension/vocabulary Test and the local American Literature criterion -referenced test for public school eleventh grade students: A correlational study

This study focused on the effectiveness of standards-based testing and was designed to determine the relationship of student scores on the locally constructed, standards-based, criterion-referenced test (CRT) for approximately 280 eleventh grade students at a Midwestern, Class III district, operating a Class A high school, and the scores of those same students on the Nebraska State Reading Comprehension/vocabulary Proficiency Examination for eleventh grade, public high school students. This study determined whether the district created tests showed a positive correlation between the quarter exams in their entirety with the Nebraska Reading Comprehension/vocabulary Proficiency Examination, and determined whether a positive correlation existed between the cold-read portion of the district created quarter CRT and the Nebraska Reading Comprehension/vocabulary Proficiency Examination. Correlations showed the positive and to be of .50 or higher between student scores of the eleventh grade students who had taken both Quarter A and Quarter B tests and the Nebraska Reading Comprehension/vocabulary Proficiency Examination in all sub-sets of students: first semester students Quarter A and Quarter B and second semester students Quarter A and Quarter B. In addition, the means for the male and female students on the Nebraska Reading Comprehension/vocabulary Proficiency Examination and the means for the Free and/or Reduced Lunch Program participants and non-participant students were examined and found to demonstrate a statistically significant correlation for each sub-set.