Predicting School Grades and Reading and Writing Skills from School Readiness Assessment Test Scores

Župić, Ante. (2015). Predicting School Grades and Reading and Writing Skills from School Readiness Assessment Test Scores. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Keresteš, Gordana].

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of the School Readiness Assessment Test (TSŠ; Vlahović-Štetić et al., 1995) in predicting school grades and reading and writing skills among students of the lower grades of elementary school. The sample consisted of the second (N=94) and third grade (N=93) students of two elementary schools from Zagreb who took the TSŠ before starting the first grade. By the end of the first half of the school year all of the participants were tested using word decoding, reading comprehension and spelling tests and data on their grades from the previous school year was taken from school administration. The results of the hierarchical linear regressions have shown that approximately 10 to 33 % of the variance of school grades in 1st grade can be explained by the School Readiness Assessment Test (TSŠ) scores, except for the grade in English. In the 3rd grade, these percentages were lower, reaching 21% at best. The results are in line with findings from the literature, according to which the initial differences in school readiness skills gradually fade away. Regarding the reading and writing skills, the TSŠ proved to be more effective in predicting word decoding (23% of the variance explained) and reading skills (25% of the variance explained) when it comes to third grade students, and more predictive concerning the text comprehension skills in the second grade (32% of the variance explained). The results were discussed in terms of the differences in complexity and the pace of the development of the reading comprehension skills, as opposed to the more basic skills of writing and decoding. Among the TSŠ subtests, Numerical test and Graphomotor skill tests proved to be the strongest predictors of the school grades. Visual discrimination test and General knowledge test were the strongest predictors of reading and writing skills.

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