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CONTENTS
[X] Vocabulary-control manual (defined)
[X] Arguments for a test designers' vocabulary manual
. . .[X]
Reason #1 - Closing the test-score gap
. . .[X] Reason #2 - Defining grade-level word meanings
. . .[X] Reason #3 - Short-term test vocabulary stability
. . .[X] Reason
#4 - Long-term test vocabulary evolution
. . .[X] Reason #5 - Helping publishers help Ohio schools
. . .[X] Closing Comments
NOTE: the purpose of this page is to: (a) show the actual letter that was sent to members of the Ohio State Board of Education on September 7, 2004, and (b) explain and defend concept of a vocabulary-control manual for test designers. As of this page's last update, a response has not been received from the Board president.
-- Beginning of letter dated: September 7, 2004 --
Ms. Jennifer Sheets, President
Ohio State Board of Education
(Copy to all members)
25 South Front St. - 7th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-4183
Dear Ms. Sheets:
Article VI, Section 2 of Ohio's Constitution calls for "thorough and efficient system of common schools". In the past, considerable attention has been given to the "thorough", that is adequate funding of schools. The
focus in this letter is on the "efficient" part of the Constitutional goal.
This is a follow-on to my letter to all Board members dated September 30, 2003. In that letter, the second topic I discussed was the need for a word list or a vocabulary "envelope" for achievement-test designers. In her February 25, 2004 letter written on your behalf, Catherine Clark-Eich, Executive Director of the Office of Board Relations, verified that the Ohio does not now have a set of vocabulary envelopes for test designers.
Ms. Clark-Eich's letter also revealed a misunderstanding on two points. To clarify, I did not ask the Ohio State Board of Education to limit, in any way, the range of vocabulary teachers use in their classrooms. I did ask the Board to authorize publication of a vocabulary envelope (word list) for test designers. Said publication might be called the "Ohio Vocabulary-Control Manual for Use by Test Designers of Ohio Academic Achievement Tests".
In this letter I will define the proposed vocabulary-control manual in more detail and explain why I believe it would improve the efficiency of Ohio's system of common schools.
VOCABULARY-CONTROL MANUAL
One of several techniques for
improving the efficiency of Ohio's academic instruction and assessment methods, is to adopt an Ohio Vocabulary-Control Manual for use by Test Designers of Ohio Academic Achievement Tests. This proposed manual would contain: (a) an introduction, (b) a
series of test-level glossaries, and (c) an integrated list of all test-level words and word meanings.
(a) Introduction
The introductory chapter would explain the background, purpose, and use of the test-designers' manual. In addition,
the Board's policy on up-dating and errata dissemination would be explained.
(b) Test-level glossaries
The alphabetical test-level glossaries would contain words and associated word meanings that are applicable to all of the subjects at
each of the grade-level achievement tests---reading, math, writing, etc. As shown below, identically spelled homonyms (homographs) would appear as separate words in the glossaries. Achievement-test designers of a 3rd-grade test, for example, would be
limited to the use of words within the 3rd-grade "vocabulary envelope". The 4th-grade test-level glossary would contain added words not already listed in the 3rd-grade glossary. Together, these two glossaries would form the 4th-grade vocabulary envelope.
Additional test-level glossaries would contain new words that are suitable for each next-higher grade-level achievement test.
(c) Integrated list
The last chapter in the manual would be a cumulative glossary listing all words with their
associated meanings and test-level glossaries. The suggested format is shown below. It is similar to that used on Page 380 of The Living Word Vocabulary.[1] Note that the different word meanings for the word "mean" are very brief. The word meanings
are, however, adequate for an adult audience (the test designers), not for classroom instruction. In order to control costs, the authors of The Living Word Vocabulary[1] designated only even-numbered grade levels. The proposed test designers' manual
would feature only the grade levels that are tested in Ohio's assessment program. The format of the integrated glossary would be:
Word - Test Level - Word Meaning
mean - 04 - cruel
mean - 04 - not nice
mean - 04 - to intend to say
mean - 08 - to signify
mean - 12 - average
mean - 12 - of little value
ARGUMENTS FOR A TEST DESIGNERS' VOCABULARY MANUAL
Please remember, the following discussion is NOT a call for teachers to
limit the range of vocabulary they use in their classrooms. This is a recommendation for the Ohio State Board of Education to authorize the creation of an Ohio Vocabulary-Control Manual for Use by Test Designers of Ohio Academic Achievement Tests. Five
reasons for creating the test designers' manual are offered.
Reason #1 - Closing the test-score gap
Beginning readers typically learn to sound-out new printed words. Once they hear written words that are already part
of their oral vocabulary, they are able to comprehend the meaning of the sentence they have just read. Unfortunately, many 4th-grade students from low-income families have an oral vocabulary comparable to the 3rd or 4th grade reading vocabulary they
encounter in school. At the same time, students from middle-class homes typically have an expanding oral vocabulary that keeps well ahead of their school reading vocabulary.
When a student does not know the meaning of a word he/she just pronounced, the student must then go on to memorize the word's meaning (be able to understand and use the word) in order to add it to their working vocabulary. This memorization step takes additional teaching/learning time beyond that required to simply sound out a word. This aspect of the learning-gap phenomenon is reviewed in Language and Reading Success by Andrew Biemiller.[2]
On Page 8, Biemiller mentioned that the vocabulary of a typical 4th grader is about 5,000 root words. By 8th grade, a student's vocabulary level has grown to over 10,000 root words. If students were not tested until they reached the 8th grade, it wouldn't matter which of the 10,000 words were taught in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades because all typical 8th graders would know the full 10,000. But, in Ohio, students are tested in reading each year in grades 3rd through 8th. Therefore, fairness dictates that students with limited oral and reading vocabulary be exposed at the appropriate time, in school, to word meanings that are likely to be on Ohio's academic achievement tests. Otherwise, these students will not always understand test words that they have successfully sounded out. For example, few of Ohio's 3rd-grade students from low-income families routinely use the word "antonym" in their everyday speech. [More on "antonym" later]
Creation of a test designers' vocabulary manual will permit district-level curriculum specialists to easily add supplementary lists of "Ohio test-words" to their commercial reading programs, math books, etc. Currently, curriculum specialists have no way to determine precisely which words Ohio's test designers consider appropriate.
Reason #2 - Defining grade-level word meanings
A variety
of reference books and basal readers are available to aid test designers and district-level curriculum specialists in the selection of grade-appropriate words. Ohio uses both a Technical Advisory Committee and a Fairness/Sensitivity Committee to review
contractor-designed questions on each grade level test. However, the word selection process is far from an exact science.
To illustrate this lack of agreement, I looked up the word "mechanical" in the book Basic Reading Vocabularies, Page 101.[3] The word "mechanical" was found to be introduced in basal readers ranging from the 2nd to the 7th grade. The "average" reading level was listed on Page 101 as 4th grade. The book EDL Reading Core Vocabularies, Page 56[4], lists "mechanical" as a 6th grade word. Incidently, the book EDL Reading Core Vocabularies is one of the tools currently being used by Ohio's Technical Advisory Committees to resolve conflicting opinions.
Another consideration in defining the grade-level of a
word is reading between the lines of Ohio's academic content standards and sample tests. Words mentioned in Ohio's reading Academic Content Standards, Page 193[5], include "antonyms", "homonyms", "homographs", "homophones", and "synonyms". The word
"Antonym" is also mentioned as a 3rd-grade word in a Planning-for-Instruction example on Page 280 of the reading Academic Content Standards[5]. One of the "Grade-3" reading practice-test questions given on the Ohio Department of Education's web site reads
as follows:
"What word is an antonym for cool ?
The direct message here is that the word "antonym" is a 3rd-grade test word. The indirect message from the Ohio's academic standards is that all five words---antonym, homonym, homograph, homophone, and synonym---may be used on Ohio's 3rd-grade achievement tests. Basic Reading Vocabularies[3] lists "antonym" as an adult word. EDL Reading Core Vocabularies[4] says "antonym" is above the 13th grade. The Living Word Vocabulary[1] shows "antonym" to be a 6th-grade word. Regardless of what the reference books say, kids in the 2nd and 3rd grades in Columbus Public Schools are now being taught to read and understand the words "antonym", "homonyms", etc. because Ohio seems to expect 3rd-graders to read and understand these five words. In my personal opinion, these five words are reasonable 3rd-grade test words because they are closely linked to the process of learning to read.
The main point here is---The appropriateness of a test word depends on each school's curriculum, not the best guess of a test-design committee. Until such time as superintendents are allowed to specify the vocabulary used on state-wide tests administered in their school district, the publishing of a vocabulary-control manual for test designers would allow local school districts to have curricula that include all word meanings that may be used on each of Ohio's grade-level tests.
Reason #3 - Short-term test vocabulary stability
As explained above, informed opinions differ on what is a typical 3rd-grade vocabulary, 4th-grade vocabulary, etc. As the years go by, it is
probable that changing test-design contractors will have a different feel for what is a 3rd-grade test word, a 4th-grade test word, etc. The same can be said for the changing membership of the various test-level Technical Advisory Committees.
Use of a test designers' vocabulary-control manual will stabilize the test designers' vocabulary from year to year. In addition, an annual on-line addendum to each edition of this manual would provide an efficient way to communicate errata and tactical changes from the State Department of Education to the more than 600 school districts.
Reason #4 - Long-term test vocabulary evolution
Over decades, Ohio's academic content standards also will change. New, now unknown
words, will enter common usage. "Internet" was an unknown word two decades ago. A periodically issued new edition of the test-designers' manual will allow Ohio's academic assessment system to communicate planned vocabulary changes directly to all
district-level curriculum specialists.
Reason #5 - Helping publishers help Ohio schools
Typically textbooks used in classrooms in Ohio are obtained from commercial publishers who compete based on the "quality" and
price of their product. One aspect of a textbook's quality is how well it aligns with a school district's curriculum. Most local curricula now encompass the state academic content standards. Once publishers augment their textbooks and programs with
Ohio-specific word-meaning lists, staff members in the more than 600 individual school districts will no longer have to spend time creating local supplementary vocabulary lists to go with their textbooks.
CLOSING
COMMENTS
This letter has focused on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of Ohio's academic instruction and assessment system. Again, this taxpayer is asking for a Board policy that creates an "Ohio Vocabulary-Control Manual for Use by Test
Designers of Ohio Academic Achievement Tests". This manual would improve efficiency of the total system by eliminating the need for staff members in the more than 600 school districts to collectively spend many hours scanning past state-wide tests in
order to add words to their local curricula. Ohio already has grade-level Technical Advisory Committees reviewing contractor-generated test questions. These same committees could be used to refine a contractor-created test designers' manual.
Here,
I have provided a description of a proposed vocabulary-control manual and I have presented five pro-manual arguments. Undoubtedly, there is a down-side to the idea. I would appreciate learning of your present thinking of this policy issue. To both you
and the other Board of Education members, who will be pondering this issue, I suggest you informally survey perhaps five or ten district-level educators by asking them to describe the pros and the cons of a vocabulary-control manual for
achievement-test designers.
Sincerely,
Bill Buckel, Ohio Taxpayer
1641 Hess Blvd.
Columbus, OH 43212
Ph. 614--488-8963
cc:
State Board of Education members
Other interested parties
REFERENCES:
[1] The Living Word Vocabulary, by Edgar Dale and Joseph O'Rourke, World Book - Childcraft International, Inc., ISBN 0-7166-3115-6, 1981.
[2] Language and Reading Success, by Andrew Biemiller, Volume 5 in
the series: From Reading Research to Practice, Brookline Books, ISBN 1-57129-068-0, 1999.
[3] Basic Reading Vocabularies, by Albert J. Harris and Milton D. Jacobson, Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc, ISBN 0-02-194870-4, 1982.
[4] EDL
Reading Core Vocabularies, by Stanford E. Taylor et al, Steck-Vaughn Co., ISBN 1-55855-811-X, 1989.
[5] Academic Content Standards, K-12 English Language Arts, by Ohio Department of Education, ISBN none, December 2001(?).
-- End
of letter dated: September 7, 2004 --
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This page last updated: January 11, 2005