Developing and validating instructionally relevant reading competency profiles measured by the critical reading section of the SAT Reasoning Test™

This study investigated whether the SAT Reasoning Test™ critical reading section would support categorizing students into reading competency profiles that could be matched to reading comprehension instructional treatments. We conducted task analyses of the reading comprehension processes required to successfully answer test items on the SAT® critical reading section and developed 5 reading comprehension skills categories. Multidimensional statistical analyses of examinee item response patterns confirmed that the SAT critical reading section measures differential performance on 4 of the 5 skills categories: (a) Word Meaning, (b) Sentence Meaning, (c) Global Text Meaning, and (d) Pragmatic Meaning. Further research is proposed to investigate whether the skill categories can be combined into reading competency profiles that represent differential competencies in lower level, text-processing skills versus higher level, integrative skills