Identifying Students at Risk for Reading Difficulties in an Indian Context

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to triangulate four data sources – Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELSNext), Easy Curriculum-Based Measures (easyCBM), Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension (TOSREC), and Classroom-Based Written Assessment – to identify students at risk for reading difficulties. Participants were 1,025 students in Grades 1, 3, and 5 attending low-cost, middle-cost, and high-cost private schools in an urban city center in Southern India. In general, we found that a larger percentage of students were identified as being at risk when we used the reading measures alone, but the numbers reduced considerably when we triangulated those scores with the written assessment. For students in Grade 1, we found that a median of 5% of students were identified as at risk across all school sites using the four data sources; for students in Grades 3 and 5, this percentage increased to 20%. Implications for reading assessment and intervention in the Indian context are discussed.