Measures reading vocabulary, comprehension, and rate
Test structure
- Core subtests include Vocabulary and Comprehension.
- In the Vocabulary subtest, students are presented with an opening statement and five answer choices; for example, "A chef works with: A. bricks B. music C. clothes D. food E. statues." Students select the option that best completes the opening statement.
- The Comprehension subtest consists of seven reading passages and 36 comprehension questions, each with five answer choices. The reading passages are drawn from current textbooks in humanities, science, and social science. Students are instructed to read as many passages and answer as many comprehension questions as they can. An optional subtest, Reading Rate, is obtained by requesting that students record in the margin the number that corresponds to the last sentence they were reading in Passage 1 of the Comprehension subtest after exactly 1 minute. Students are instructed to read at their normal rate, neither faster nor slower than usual.
- Provides a General Reading Ability composite score that indicates overall reading ability.
Technical information
- Based on all-new age-based (N = 4,010) and grade-based (N = 3,487) normative data stratified to match 2017 US population estimates.
- Yields scores as grade and age equivalents, percentile ranks, and index scores (mean of 100, standard deviation of 15).
- Based on all-new reliability and validity studies, including new studies of differential item functioning and diagnostic accuracy.
- Average internal consistency coefficients range from .85 to .95. Average alternate-form reliability ranges from .88 to .94.
- Test-retest reliability ranges from .89 to .98.
- Diagnostic accuracy studies indicate that the NDRT is able to accurately identify students with reading difficulties (sensitivity= .73; specificity = .80; ROC/AUC = .88) with few false positives.
Online administration, scoring, and report system
The NDRT Online Administration, Scoring, and Report system can be purchased without the NDRT Complete Kit as a stand-alone product, or online administrations can be purchased separately as an add-on to the complimentary online scoring and reporting system included with the complete kit.
The software allows for computer administration as well as item-level and subtest-level raw score data entry. It quickly calculates and reports all scores and generates a Summary Report that can be edited, printed, or saved. A complete NDRT Examiner's Manual is accessible through the Help menu.