Critique of Informal Reading Inventories: Can a Valid Instructional Level Be Obtained?
Ray Gerke · Journal of Reading Behavior · 1980
A primary consideration prior to administration of an informal reading inventory (IRI) is the content validity of the instrument. A test administrator should recognize how accurately posed reading selections in IRI's correspond to the type and range of reading difficulty existing at specified grade levels. The intent of the investigation was to determine readability estimates in a review of five in-formal reading inventories and one standardized test containing graded reading passages. Most of the IRIs examined included extractions from publishers ' basal readers. Users would assume that the reading selections of these tests become progressively more difficult. Procedures Employed Each inventory was considered in its progression of increasing readability levels. The Revised Spache Readability Formula (1974) was the measurement applied to primary level reading materials; the Dale-Chali Formula (1948) was the readability measurement for all other levels beyond the third. The examiner also applied the Fry Readability Formula (1968); inter-polation, and an extended graph through the primer level were necessary for reading material (graded pre-primer through level 9), varying from the standard 100 word length required for ap-plication of the Fry formula. Derived estimates of the readability formulas were tabulated to assess progression of reading difficulty levels. Because the Revised Spache Readability Formula (1974) was the measurement for readability of primary graded reading passages, discrepancies will exist from the findings of the original Spache formula (1953). Use of the revised formula will tend to yield lower grade level estimates, in order to approximate more accurately the difficulty levels of recently published primary level reading material. Hence, the Spache readability estimates of the revised formula will differand appear less than the Spache readabilty estimates, as reported by the authors of