If you have ever been in a meeting with me and reading comprehension was ever discussed you have more than likely had to listen to my rant about the AIMSweb reading comprehension Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) called MAZE. As long as I have known about this CBM I have issues with it. Here is what it looks like...
A student has to read each sentence and when it comes across the 3 words in the parenthesis they have to circle the correct word that goes in the sentence. This test is also timed.
Can anyone see why I, and you as a parent, should have issues with this? Is this really a reading comprehension test? I can bet that most students who have a teacher who is concerned about comprehension and has suggested an intervention for this would agree that this does not measure comprehension. If asked after doing this measure what the passage was about, a lot of students wouldn't be able to tell you the main idea of the passage. This is a problem.
I totally understand why schools use it though. The state of Tennessee has said that AIMSweb is an approved CBM tool. However, it is only ONE piece of data that schools should be using.
(If anyone asked my opinion, QRI is a good comprehension tool)
I was recently looking for an example of the MAZE so I could show parents what it looked like and I came across this article, 6 Really Good Reasons to Stop Using AIMSweb MAZE Right Now. I highly recommend reading it.
Can anyone see why I, and you as a parent, should have issues with this? Is this really a reading comprehension test? I can bet that most students who have a teacher who is concerned about comprehension and has suggested an intervention for this would agree that this does not measure comprehension. If asked after doing this measure what the passage was about, a lot of students wouldn't be able to tell you the main idea of the passage. This is a problem.
I totally understand why schools use it though. The state of Tennessee has said that AIMSweb is an approved CBM tool. However, it is only ONE piece of data that schools should be using.
(If anyone asked my opinion, QRI is a good comprehension tool)
I was recently looking for an example of the MAZE so I could show parents what it looked like and I came across this article, 6 Really Good Reasons to Stop Using AIMSweb MAZE Right Now. I highly recommend reading it.
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