The Letter-Sound Short Forms (LSSFs) were designed to meet criteria for effective progress monitoring tools by exhibiting strong psychometrics, offering multiple equivalent forms, and being brief and easy to administer and score. The present study expands available psychometric information for the LSSFs by providing an initial examination of their validity in assessing young children’s emerging letter-sound knowledge. In a sample of 998 preschool-aged children, the LSSFs were sensitive to change over time, showed strong concurrent validity with established letter-sound knowledge and related emergent literacy measures, and demonstrated predictive validity with emergent literacy measures. The LSSFs also predicted kindergarten readiness scores available for a subsample of children. These findings have implications for using the LSSFs to monitor children’s alphabet knowledge acquisition and to support differentiated early alphabet instruction.
AlonzoJ.TindalG.UlmerK.GlasgowA. (2006). easyCBM online progress monitoring assessment system. Eugene, OR: Center for Educational Assessment Accountability.
2.
American Institutes for Research. (2004). Kindergarten entry-level literacy instrument field-test technical report. Columbus, OH: Author.
3.
AnthonyJ. L.LoniganC. J. (2004). The nature of phonological awareness: Converging evidence from four studies of preschool and early grade school children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 43–55.
4.
BailetL. L.RepperK.MurphyS.PiastaS.Zettler-GreeleyC. (2013). Emergent literacy intervention for prekindergarteners at risk for reading failure: Years 2 and 3 of a multiyear study. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 46, 133–153. doi:10.1177/0022219411407925
5.
BuschT. W.ReschlyA. L. (2007). Progress monitoring in reading: Using curriculum-based measurement in a response-to-intervention model. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 32, 223–230. doi:10.1177/15345084070320040401
6.
DoddB.CosbieS.McIntoshB.TeitzzelT.OzanneA. (2003). Pre-Reading Inventory of Phonological Awareness. San Antonio, TX: PsychCorp.
7.
DrouinM.HornerS. L.SondergeldT. A. (2012). Alphabet knowledge in preschool: A Rasch model analysis. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27, 543–554.
8.
EhriL. C. (2015). How children learn to read words. In PollatsekA.TreimanR. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of reading (pp. 293–310). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
9.
EhriL. C.NunesS. R.WillowsD. M.SchusterB. V.Yaghoub-ZadehZ.ShanahanT. (2001). Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read: Evidence from the national reading panel’s meta-analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 36, 250–287.
10.
EndersC. K. (2010). Applied missing data analysis (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
11.
EvansM. A.BellM.ShawD.MorettiS.PageJ. (2006). Letter names, letter sounds and phonological awareness: An examination of kindergarten children across letters and of letters across children. Reading and Writing, 19, 959–989.
12.
GoodR. H.KaminskiR. A.SmithS.LaimonD.DillS. (2001). Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (5th ed.). Eugene: Institute for Development of Educational Achievement, University of Oregon.
13.
HasbrouckJ.TindalG. A. (2006). Oral reading fluency norms: A valuable assessment tool for reading teachers. The Reading Teacher, 59, 636–644. doi:10.1598/rt.59.7.3
14.
HospM. K.FuchsL. S. (2005). Using CBM as an indicator of decoding, word reading, and comprehension: Do relations change with grade?School Psychology Review, 34, 9–26.
15.
InvernizziM. A.SullivanA.MeierJ. D.SwankL. (2004). Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for preschool. Charlottesville: University of Virginia.
16.
JonesC. D.ReutzelD. R. (2012). Enhanced alphabet knowledge instruction: Exploring a change of frequency, focus, and distributed cycles of review. Reading Psychology, 33, 448–464. doi:10.1080/02702711.2010.545260
17.
KelleyB.HospJ. L.HowellK. W. (2008). Curriculum-based evaluation and math: An overview. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 33, 250–256.
18.
Ketterlin-GellerL. R.GiffordD. B.PerryL. (2015). Measuring middle school students’ algebra readiness: Examining validity evidence for three experimental measures. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 41, 28–40.
19.
LoniganC. J.PhillipsB. M. (2016). Response to instruction in preschool: Results of two randomized studies with children at significant risk of reading difficulties. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108, 114–129. doi:10.1037/edu0000054
20.
LoniganC. J.SchatschneiderC.WestbergL., & The National Early Literacy Panel. (2008). Identification of children’s skills and abilities linked to later outcomes in reading, writing, and spelling. In Developing early literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel (pp. 55–106). Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.
21.
McBride-ChangC. (1999). The ABCs of the ABCs: The development of letter-name and letter-sound knowledge. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 45, 285–308.
22.
McConnellS. R.BradfieldT.Wackerle-HollmanA. K.RodriguezM. (2012). Individual Growth and Development Indicators of early literacy (2nd ed.). Saint Paul: Regents of the University of Minnesota.
23.
MissallK.ReschlyA.BettsJ.McConnellS.HeistadD.PickartM.. . . MarstonD. (2007). Examination of the predictive validity of preschool early literacy skills. School Psychology Review, 36, 433–452.
24.
PhillipsB. M.LoniganC. J.WyattM. A. (2009). Predictive validity of the get ready to read! Screener. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42, 133–147. doi:10.1177/0022219408326209
25.
PhillipsB. M.PiastaS. B. (2013). Phonological awareness and print knowledge: Key precursors and instructional targets to promote reading success. In ShanahanT.LoniganC. J. (Eds.), Early childhood literacy: The National Early Literacy Panel and beyond (pp. 95–116). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
26.
PhillipsB. M.PiastaS. B.AnthonyJ.L.LoniganC.J.FrancisD.J. (2012). IRTs of the ABCs: Children’s letter name acquisition. Journal of School Psychology, 50, 461–481.
27.
PiastaS. B. (2014). Moving to assessment-guided differentiated instruction to support young children’s alphabet knowledge. The Reading Teacher, 68, 202–211. doi:10.1002/trtr.1316
28.
PiastaS. B.WagnerR. K. (2010a). Developing emergent literacy skills: A meta-analysis of alphabet learning and instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 45, 8–38.
29.
PiastaS. B.WagnerR. K. (2010b). Learning letter names and sounds: Effects of instruction, letter type, and phonological processing skill. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 105, 324–344.
30.
PiastaS. B.JusticeL.M.O’ConnellA.A.MauckS.Weber-MayrerM.M.SchachterR.E.FarleyK.F.SpearC.F. (2017). Effectiveness of large-scale, state-sponsored language and literacy professional development on early childhood educator outcomes. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10, 354–378.
31.
PiastaS. B.PhillipsB.M.WilliamsJ.BowlesR.AnthonyJ.L. (2016). Measuring young children’s alphabet knowledge: Development and validation of brief letter-sound assessments. The Elementary School Journal, 6, 523–548.
32.
RaykovT.DimitrovD. M.AsparouhovT. (2010). Evaluation of scale reliability with binary measures using latent variable modeling. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 17, 265–279. doi:10.1080/10705511003659417
33.
RoehrigA. D.PetscherY.NettlesS. M.HudsonR. F.TorgesenJ. K. (2008). Accuracy of the DIBELS oral reading fluency measure for predicting third grade reading comprehension outcomes. Journal of School Psychology, 46, 343–366. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2007.06.006
34.
SchatschneiderC.FletcherJ. M.FrancisD. J.CarlsonC. D.FoormanB. R. (2004). Kindergarten prediction of reading skills: A longitudinal comparative analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 265–282.
35.
ShapiroE. S. (2008). Best practices in setting progress monitoring goals for academic skill improvement. In ThomasA.GrimesJ. (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 141–157). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.
36.
ThissenD.OrlandoM. (2001). Item response theory for items scored in two categories. In WainerD. T. H. (Ed.), Test scoring (pp. 73–140). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
37.
WilsonS. B.LoniganC. J. (2010). Identifying preschool children at risk of later reading difficulties: Evaluation of two emergent literacy screening tools. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 43, 62–76. doi:10.1177/0022219409345007
38.
WoodcockR.McGrewK. S.MatherN. (2007). Woodcock–Johnson Tests of Achievement (3rd ed., Normative update). Itasca, IL: Riverside. (Original work published 2001)
