Components of Reading Comprehension
 Word Recognition
 Language Comprehension (vocabulary knowledge; syntactic
knowledge)
 World Knowledge
 Motivation
 Cognitive Abilities (e.g., working memory, executive functions)
Purposes of the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading - Florida Standards (FAIR-FS)
 To provide a reliable estimate of a student’s ability in skills that contribute to reading comprehension
 To provide probability of success on specified end-of-year outcome measures
 To identify those students who may be at risk so that their strengths and weaknesses can be
diagnosed and instructional objectives can be set
 FAIR-FS scores are NOT intended to be the sole data point in determining retention or special
education determination
Subtest
Grade
AP
Score Type
Score Type
Subtest
Grade AP Score Type
Score Type
Probability of Literacy Success
Probability of Literacy
K-2
1-3
Probability of Literacy Success
3-12 1-3 PLS (1-99)
(PLS)***
Success (PLS) (1-99)
Letter Sounds
K
1, 2
Word Recognition
3-12 1-3
Florida
Ability Score
Phonological Awareness
K
1-3
Vocabulary Knowledge
3-12 1-3 Percentile
(200-1000)
Word Reading*
1,2*
1-3
Reading Comprehension
3-12 1-3
(1-99)
Florida
Ability
Percentile
Spelling
2
1-3
3-12 1-3
Score (150-800) Syntactic Knowledge
(1-99)
Vocabulary Pairs
K,1,2
1-3
Following Directions
K,1,2
1-3
Sentence Comprehension
K, Non Readers 1-3
Listening Comprehension
K, Non Readers 1-3
Raw score (0 – 5)
Reading Comprehension*
1,2*
1-3 Words correct per minute Raw score (0 – 5)
*Also administered to Kindergarten students at AP3. **Scores for grades 11 & 12 are based on normative data from grade 10. ***The Probability of Literacy Success is comprised of
multiple subtests depending on the grade level. Reading Comprehension explains most of the variance. Students with PLS less than 70 (.70) are at risk.
Score Type
Explanation of Score
What it reflects
What it does NOT reflect
Ability
• Quantifies a student’s
• Performance compared
 Scores represent an estimate of ability in a specific skill and reflects true change over time as ability
Scores
level of skill and reflects
to other students
increases or decreases, covers a range of ability from 3rd grade to 12th
changes
• Grade‐level
– Scores range from 150 – 1000 (mean of 500 and standard deviation of 100)
•
Scale
ranges
from
a
performance
 Indicates degree of growth for each student
minimal
amount
of
skill
to
 Example: If a student receives a score of 400 at AP1 and 520 at AP2, s/he made significant growth (i.e.,
expert
more than 1 standard deviation)
 A 3rd grade student with an ability score of 500 is performing exactly the same as a 7th grader with an
ability score of 500
Percentile
• Student’s ability
• Percentage of correct
 Score is used to rank one student’s performance in relation to a particular group of other students
Rank
compared
to
other
responses
– Ranges from 1 – 99 (25th through 75th percentile represents the expected scoring range)
students
in
the
same
grade
• Growth
– Based on a representative sample of Florida students
• Level of expected
 Example: A fifth grade student with a percentile rank of 55 performed as well or better than 55% of other
performance
Florida fifth graders.
Probability
of Literacy
Success
 A PLS of .50 predicts that the student has a 50/50 chance of earning a passing score on an outcome
measure
PLS Zones of Success:
 PLS is based on aggregate of WRT, VKT, and RCT
rd th
 Green Zone - Low Risk (.85 - .99)
– 3 -7 grade – VKT and RCT
th
 Yellow Zone - Moderate Risk (.16 - .84
– 8 grade – RCT
th
th
 Red - High Risk (.0 - .15)
– 9 -10 – WRT and RCT
 Likelihood that a student • Growth
• Previous year’s end‐of‐
will score at the 40th
year test score
percentile on an end-ofyear outcome measure  Grade level
(i.e., SAT-10)
performance
