Date of Award

5-1982

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Education

Department

Education

First Advisor

Nancy Polette

Second Advisor

Daniel J. Roubin

Abstract

This study concentrates on the efficiency of three predictive measures used at the end of kindergarten to predict how kindergarten students will perform in reading in relation to three ability groupings of high, average, or low for first grade. Through research this writer attempted to find out if a teacher's own prediction for future academic achievement in reading will be as efficient as a prediction of a rating scale or a reading readiness test.

Included in this paper the researcher has a review of the problem of prediction in education and a review of the factors that researchers have considered in making predictions about future academic achievement.

The procedure used involved all the kindergarten teachers in the Francis Howell School District. The fourteen kindergarten teachers made predictions about the future reading achievement in first grade on 160 kindergarten students. The following three predictors were done in May at specified time intervals: (1) a teacher prediction of high, average, or low as it relates to a student's future performance in first grade reading and a number value of three, two, or one were assigned to those respective groups, (2) a rating scale called the Kindergarten Teacher Rating Scale (Glazzard & Kirk, 1979) which gave a prediction of high, average, or low and a total score, (3) a reading readiness test called the Metropolitan Reading Readiness Test which gave a prediction of high, average, or low and a pre-reading composite score. The criterion variable was the total reading score from the Stanford Achievement Test: Reading Battery, Primary Level I, Form A (1973), obtained at the end of first grade.

The statistical design of this study shows the relationship and correlation between each variable and each variables relationship and correlation to the criterion measure. These relationships are presented through graphic and tabular presentations, the t-test of correlation and the Pearson Product Moment correlation.

The results of this study would give credibility and validity to the current practice of using teacher judgment to predict and form three ability groupings of high, average, or low as it pertains to reading achievement in first grade. Also, it would show through these comparisons that a teacher's prediction was as efficient as a rating scale or a reading readiness test.

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