The relationship between Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE™) has been evaluated following standards established by the National Center for Intensive Intervention (NCII). As detailed below, InSight met both correlation and classification accuracy standards when analyzed in relation to the GRADE. Therefore, educators can be confident in InSight results and the subsequent intervention decisions they make for their students. Further, InSight provides a solid indicator of whether students are on track to meet GRADE proficiency.
InSight is Strongly Correlated with GRADE
A statistical correlation measures the strength of the relationship between the results of two assessments. A value of 0.70 or higher* is considered a strong correlation and a key criterion of validity by the NCII. All correlation values between InSight and the GRADE in grades 4–5 met this standard.
InSight Accurately Classifies Students on GRADE
The NCII considers an Area Under the Curve (AUC) value of 0.80 or higher** to be convincing evidence that an assessment has met the “classification accuracy” standard. This indicates that when InSight classifies a student as being proficient, there is strong evidence that the GRADE ELA would also classify the student as being proficient. All AUC values between InSight and the GRADE ELA across grades 4–5 met this standard.
InSight was also evaluated with another important classification statistic. The Overall Classification Accuracy is the percentage of students who were classified as proficient or not proficient on InSight who were also classified at that same level on the GRADE. Although the NCII requires this statistic as part of its evaluation process, it does not set a threshold criterion. Reading Plus believes that an assessment like InSight, which is used for screening and progress monitoring, should accurately classify 75% or more of students at the same overall proficiency level as the state or districted-mandated ELA assessment. InSight met this level of classification accuracy in relation to GRADE across grades 4-5.
