TORC-3 Test of Reading Comprehension

By: Sami Napier & Sabrina Richardson

To identify students whose scores are significantly below those of their peers and who might need interventions designed to improve reading comprehension

To determine areas of relative strength and weakness across reading comprehension abilities

To document overall progress in reading development as a consequences of interventions programs

To serve as a measure for research efforts designed to investigate reading comprehension

PURPOSES FOR USING TORC-3

Ages, 0-7 and 11-17 Able to understand directions of subtests Able to formulate the necessary responses Able to read English

Eligibility for Testing

No time limits The entire test varies from 30 minutes to 90

minutes The average time being an hour Each subtest generally takes 5-15 minutes

Administration Time

Administration

Administration

Shorten testing time Avoid giving readers items that are too

difficult

Ceilings

Purpose: to measure the reader’s understanding of vocabulary that is related to a general concept

Description: 25 vocabulary questions Ceiling: reached when three (3) items in any

five-item sequence have been answered incorrectly

General Vocabulary

Example

Purpose: to measure the reader’s understanding of meaningfully similar but syntactically different sentence structures

Description: 20 questions Ceiling: reached when three (3) items in any

five-item sequence have been answered incorrectly

Syntactic Similarities

Example

Purpose: ability to answer questions related to the paragraph

Description: 6 paragraphs with 5 questions each

The first question requires the student to choose the best title that conveys the overall theme

The second and fifth questions recall story details The third question makes an inference The fourth question makes a negative inference

Ceiling: reached when two items or more questions for any story are answered incorrectly

Paragraph Reading

Example

Purpose: measure the ability to order sentences into a paragraph

Description: 10 test questions Consisting of 5 randomly ordered sentences and the

reader has to put them in the correct order to form a paragraph

Ceiling: reached when any two items in a row have a score of 3 or lower

Sentence Sequencing

Example

Purpose: understanding of mathematics vocabulary

Description: 25 test questions Ceiling: reached when three (3) items in any

five-item sequence have been answered incorrectly

Mathematics Vocabulary

Example

Purpose: understand social studies vocabulary

Description: 25 test questions Ceiling: reached when three (3) items in any

five-item sequence have been answered incorrectly

Social Studies Vocabulary

Example

Purpose: understanding of science vocabulary

Description: 25 test questions Ceiling: reached when three (3) items in any

five-item sequence have been answered incorrectly

Science Vocabulary

Example

Purpose: measures understanding of written directions commonly found in schoolwork

Description: 25 test questions Consist of a printed command that the student has to

carry out on the answer sheet

Ceiling: no ceiling, all items should be accepted

Reading of Directions of Schoolwork

Example

Raw Scores: total number of points correct for each subtest

Grade Equivalent: Indicates the reading comprehension grade level that corresponds to the raw score made by the student

Age Equivalent: Indicates the age level that corresponds to the raw score made by the student

Percentiles: Represent a value on a scale of 100 that indicates the percentage of the distribution that is equal or below the value.

Example: 90% of a 12 year old indicates that 90 % of the sample at that age scored at or below the raw score.

Scores Yielded

Subtest Standard Scores: These scores provide the clearest indication of a person’s subtest performance.

Example: Standard score is 8 they are considered average and approximately half (49.50%) of the population is average

Scores Yielded Continued

Standard Score

Description % of Age Included

17-20 Very Superior 2.27

15-16 Superior 6.86

13-14 Above Average 16.12

8-12 Average 49.50

6-7 Below Average 16.12

4-5 Poor 6.86

1-3 Very Poor 2.27

The Reading Comprehension Quotient (RCQ):combination of General Vocabulary, Syntactic Similarities, Paragraph Reading, and Sentence Sequencing

Most reliable, valid, and useful measure of reading comprehension

Scores Yielded Continued

Quotient Description % Age Included

>130 Very Superior 2.27

121-130 Superior 6.86

111-120 Above Average 16.12

90-110 Average 49.50

80-89 Below Average 16.12

70-79 Poor 6.86

< 70 Very Poor 2.27

Example of a Raw Score

Configure the Raw Score

Correct Raw Score

1. All subtest scores fall in a fairly narrow range varying no more than 3 to 5 standard score points. This means that the reader is consistent in their reading competence.

2. Readers perform higher on reading comprehension score subtests than on one or more of the diagnostic supplements.

3. A reader performs significantly lower on one of the reading comprehension core subtests.

4. A reader is inconsistent across the subtests.

Subtest Performance Patterns

Reading comprehension is a complex mental ability

TORC-3 subtests were correlated with the total scores of two intelligence tests◦ Short-Form Test of Academic Aptitude ◦ Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised

Relationship to Test Of Intelligence

The previous TORC test received negative criticism because it failed to describe the characteristics of the normative sample in regards to ethnicity, race and disabling conditions. These issues were corrected in the TORC-3

Interesting Facts