Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

The Utility Of Local Norms In The Identification Of Students With Learning Disabilities In Reading, Brian C. Malliett

Ed.D. Dissertations

Third grade students were administered two universal screening reading measures at the beginning and end of the school year. In an effort to limit the misidentification of reading disabilities (RD) in lower socioeconomic community populations of the school district, local norms were established. The local and national norms were compared using the 10th percentile, or -1.27 Z-score, to identify discrepant scores. A diminished classification of RD was evidenced when local norms were utilized in contrast to the use of national norms. Locally-normed slope scores in conjunction with the benchmark testing scores showed a moderate level of correlation than when …