Will easyCBM ever separate fiction vs. non-fiction reading assessments?

With the addition of the Deluxe version of easyCBM, we added a whole array of nonfiction reading to our system in the form of the Basic Reading as well as the Vocabulary measures. These non-fiction measures have been intermixed with the fiction ones and are not offered as separate assessments. Both Deluxe and District users have access to them.

To assess students’ inferential and evaluative comprehension with multiple alternate forms of comparable difficulty, we have found that the fictional narrative genre works extremely well. The key is that the types of questions we are asking assess students’ literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension skills. Fortunately, these skills transcend genre.

The Basic Reading Measures are comprised of five different parts. Three of the five use informational text as the reading prompt, while two use short narrative fiction. We created these measures specifically to address state and national standards that call for students to be taught informational, as well as narrative, text. Although it might be tempting to split out just the informational text sections, our empirical studies suggest that the sections of the Basic Reading measures that use informational text function no differently than the sections that use narrative fictional text. In other words, although on the surface, it might appear that these call on different skills, when we analyze actual student performance data on these measures specifically, there are no differences based on text-type.

Thus, if a student’s IEP calls for monitoring their progress reading informational text, it would be appropriate to use the easyCBM Basic Reading measures to document progress.

For more detailed information: Relationship between easyCBM & Smarter Balance