Combining reading, writing and spelling scores still leaves immense grade overlap: on average 33.2% of pupils reach the next grade's range and 35.3% fall below their own grade's range¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 1910 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? When equal-valued average scores for reading, writing and spelling were computed for 401 pupils, overlapping was somewhat less than for single subjects but still immense: an average of 33.2% of pupils in each grade reach or exceed the lower limit of the next grade, and 35.3% fall below the upper limit of their own grade. → Starch 1910

Evidence¶

Starch 1910¶

Starch, D. (1910). The Measurement of Efficiency in Spelling, and the Overlapping of Grades in Combined Measurements of Reading, Writing and Spelling. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=The+Measurement+of+Efficiency+in+Spelling

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Combined-measure analysis of 401 pupils: each pupil's reading speed and comprehension, writing speed and quality, and spelling score were reduced to a common scale assuming the grade-1-to-8 growth in each was of equal value, then plotted as per-grade distributions (Figure 3). The third-grade column includes pupils from grades 1 to 6.

"A comparison of these curves reveals still an immense amount of overlapping. It is somewhat less than the overlapping of the performances in each subject separately, but it is not as much less as most teachers would anticipate."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Grades overlap massively in spelling: on average 20.8% of pupils reach or exceed the median of the next grade above — related
• Standard spelling scores for grades 1–8 derived from 2500 pupils rise from 10 in grade 1 to 85 in grade 8 — related
• Group averages are misleading when applied to individual pupils because of extensive overlapping in weight and height across grades — related
• Corrected measures of overlapping show 33 per cent correct classification rather than the 17 per cent previously reported, and 19.5 per cent rather than 33 per cent exceeding or falling short of the adjacent grade's median — related