Spotlight Screener as a Predictor of First-grade Reading Achievement

Abstract

The Spotlight for Literacy screener was examined for reliability, validity, and performance of children, related to biographical variables, by administering it to 458 first-grade Australian children early in the school year (March-April) with criterion measures of reading and mathematics (Daniels and Diack Standard Reading Tests and Metropolitan Achievement Test) being given later in October-November. Internal consistency reliability was shown by a Kuder Richardson coefficient of 0.89. Correlations of the screener with the criterion tests ranged from 0.7 to 0.8. Step-wise multiple regression analyses indicated that 11 of the 13 subtests contributed significantly to the variance, when the subtests were independent variables and the criterion tests were dependent variables. Multiple discriminant function analyses showed that hit rates of the screener as a predictor were very high for the low and high achiever groups. On the screener, girls had higher scores than boys, groups differed according to socioeconomic status (higher scores to higher SES), and children from English-speaking homes scored higher than children who had English as their second language.