Curriculum-Based Measures of Writing for High School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether technically adequate curriculum-based measures of writing could be identified for use with high school students. The participants included 10th-grade general and special education students from two public school districts in Wisconsin. Students ( n = 82) completed two narrative writing samples in response to story starters, and samples were scored for four alternative curriculum-based measures: incorrect word sequences (ICWS), correct punctuation marks (CPM), adverbs (ADV), and adjectives (ADJ). Results revealed moderately strong alternate-form reliability and criterion-related validity coefficients for ICWS. Although CPM was found to be reliable, the criterion-related validity evidence varied according to the type of criterion measure. Other findings indicated that ICWS and CPM cut scores may have utility for specific screening purposes. The curriculum-based measures of ADJ and ADV, however, were not found to have the technical adequacy needed for predictive purposes.