Validation Analysis During the Design Stage of Text Leveling

Using leveled books to ascertain students’ reading levels has been found to yield scores that are not sufficiently reliable and that lack criterion-related validation evidence. One reason for these findings is the sole reliance on content validation to level books. We present in this study a demonstration of an integrated leveling process for assessing the complexity of text passages. The procedure, which capitalizes on conventional test development practices such as field-testing items, contains a built-in validation process that allows for the selection of text that falls along a confirmed gradient of difficulty, from easy to advance levels of challenge. The integrated leveling process applies both well-established procedures for assessing text levels of complexity as well as a thorough item analysis of the books through pretesting. The resulting assessment tool provides rich information to identify student competencies and needs, inform instructional decisions, and document progress.