Novel Interpretations of Academic Growth

Abstract

Integrating a construct theory with Rasch measurement not only places persons and tasks on a common scale, but it resolves the indeterminacy of scale location and unit size when the scale is anchored in an operationalized task continuum based on the construct theory.  Such an approach has several advantages for understanding academic growth as evidenced in a series of empirical examples, which demonstrate how to: a) conjointly interpret student reading growth in the context of reading materials concomitantly used during instruction; b) interpret a reading growth trajectory in light of future (e.g., postsecondary) reading requirements; c) forecast individual reading comprehension rates relative to both contemporary and future text complexity requirements; and d) create growth velocity norms for average academic growth in reading or mathematics achievement.