NAEP Technical DocumentationReading Assessment Subscale Composition for New and Previously Administered Blocks at Grade 4: 2003

Each reading assessment includes blocks of new items and blocks of items from previous assessments. For the new items and for the previously administered items in each reading scale, the number of multiple-choice, dichotomously scored constructed-response and polytomously scored constructed-response items are provided for grade 4. The item counts are available for each scale as defined in the final Item Response Theory (IRT) scales.

Scale composition by item type for new blocks as defined after scaling, grade 4 reading combined national and state main assessment: 2003
Scale	Multiple-choice items		Dichotomously scored constructed-response items		Polytomously scored constructed-response items
Scale	Scaled	Dropped	Scaled	Dropped	Polytomous (uncollapsed)	Dichotomous collapsed	Polytomous collapsed	Dropped
Total	12	0	2	0	4	2	0	0
Reading for literary experience	6	0	1	0	2	1	0	0
Reading to gain information	6	0	1	0	2	1	0	0
NOTE: "Dropped" denotes items that were deleted from the final scaling. "Collapsed" denotes items that had categories that were combined and recoded for scaling. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2003 Reading Assessment.

Scale composition by item type for previously administered blocks as defined after scaling, grade 4 reading combined national and state main assessment: 2003
Scale	Multiple-choice items			Dichotomously scored constructed-response items			Polytomously scored constructed-response items
Scale	Concurrent	Split	Dropped	Concurrent	Split	Dropped	Concurrent polytomous (uncollapsed)	Concurrent dichotomous collapsed	Concurrent polytomous collapsed	Split	Dropped
Total	37	0	0	21	0	0	14	4	2	0	0
Reading for literary experience¹	18	0	0	10	0	0	6	3	1	0	0
Reading to gain information²	19	0	0	11	0	0	8	1	1	0	0
¹ Items R012108 (2002) and R012113 (2003) in block R4; items R012611 (2002) and R012612 (2003) in block R5; items R015802 (2002) and R015810 (2003) in block R9 had not been administered in a previous assessment (i.e., in a NAEP reading assessment prior to the 2003 assessment) and, therefore, were not included in this table. ² Items R012708 (2002) and R012714 (2003) in block R7 had not been administered in a previous assessment and, therefore, were not included in this table. NOTE: "Concurrent" denotes items that were scaled as common items across assessment years. "Split" denotes items that were scaled as different items in each assessment year. "Dropped" denotes items that were deleted from the final scaling. "Collapsed" denotes items that had categories that were combined and recoded for scaling. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2003 Reading Assessment.

Last updated 13 February 2009 (RF)

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