Content validity to support the use of a computer-based phonological awareness screening and monitoring assessment (Com-PASMA) in the classroom

PURPOSE: This study investigated the content validity of a computer-based phonological awareness (PA) screening and monitoring assessment (Com-PASMA) designed to evaluate school-entry PA abilities. Establishing content validity by confirming that test items suitably 'fit' and sample a spectrum of difficulty levels is critical for ensuring educators can deduce accurate information to comprehensively differentiate curricular reading instruction. METHOD: Ninety-five children, inclusive of 21 children with spoken language impairment, participated in a 1-year longitudinal study whereby the Com-PASMA was administered at the start, middle and end of the school year. RESULT: Estimates of content validity using Rasch Model analysis demonstrated that: (1) rhyme oddity and initial phoneme identity tasks were most appropriate at school-entry and sampled a spectrum of difficulty levels, (2) more challenging phoneme level tasks (e.g. final phoneme identity, phoneme blending, phoneme deletion and phoneme segmentation) became increasingly appropriate and differentiated between high- and low-ability students by the middle and end of the first year of school and (3) letter-knowledge tasks were appropriate but declined in their ability to differentiate student ability as the year progressed. CONCLUSION: Findings demonstrate that the Com-PASMA has sufficient content validity to measure and differentiate between the PA abilities of 5-year-old children on entry to school.