Evaluating the Assessment Component of the HELPS Program

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to examine the assessment component of the Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) Program which is similar to curriculum-based measurement (CBM). CBM has demonstrated usefulness with determining student growth and intervention effectiveness, as well as predicting student outcomes on state-mandated assessment. The current study utilized data from one academic year of implementation of the HELPS Program with second grade students at an elementary school. The purpose was to evaluate whether the assessment data from HELPS indicated gains in students’ reading fluency and whether those gain scores predicted student outcomes on the Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT) for fluency and comprehension. Students’ scores were evaluated in terms of generalization of passage gains (initial reading of a new passage), immediate passage gains (gains within one session with one passage), and retention of passage gains (gains from one session to the next). Scores were evaluated with both linear and quadratic multi-level models. Results indicated that students’ generalization of passage gain scores were most meaningful in terms of determining growth over time and predicting students’ outcome scores. Immediate passage gains, however, can also be useful in evaluating students’ growth over time. Implications for these results are discussed.