February 16, 2010

Media Contact: Emily Keeler
ekeeler@fsu.edu, 850-694-0821

Barbara Foorman

Barbara Foorman, Francis Eppes Professor of Education at The Florida State University's College of Education and director of the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR), has been awarded a grant from the Florida Department of Education to measure reading progress in struggling adolescents.

The $1.5 million grant aims to address the low levels of reading proficiency exhibited by many of Florida’s students. Foorman said that 40 percent of students in grades 3 to 12 do not meet the criteria for “proficient readers” as measured by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and, according to Florida law, must receive intensive reading intervention.

“Reading teachers and content-area teachers at the secondary level are particularly excited about having data and instructional resources to improve the reading comprehension of their struggling readers,” said Foorman.

In an effort to provide schools with formative assessment to guide instruction, the Florida Department of Education contracted with FCRR to develop screening, diagnostic and progres- monitoring measures for students in grades K-12. The new assessment is called the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR) and has been used by over 1.6 million students in Florida during the 2009-2010 school year. FAIR data are incorporated into the Progress Monitoring and Reporting Network, Florida’s K-12 database housed at FCRR.

“This research involves state-of-the art psychometric and growth modeling techniques that will shorten FAIR’s computer-adaptive testing time,” said Foorman. “It will help determine how much growth in ability is needed for students to pass FCAT.”

FCRR  was established in January 2002 and is jointly administered at FSU by the Learning Systems Institute and the College of Arts and Sciences.