Analyzing Students' CLOZE and CARI Test

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Defining Basic Concepts

■ Cloze Test
A passage of 100 words is selected and then every fifth word is deleted. The first and last sentences of the whole text are left in their entirety (Sejnost, 2007).
Please click here to see a sample.

■ CARI Test
Test divided into three sections: a) knowledge about reading aids offered by the textbook, b) specific content vocabulary, and c) explicit and implicit information (Sejnost, 2007).
Please click here to see a sample.


Analyzing Results
■ Cloze Test
According to Chatel (2001) Cloze tests allow the researcher to identify three reading levels  depending on the percentage of correct responses. If you want to have more information about what cloze tests show, please click here.

1) Independent Reading Level (58% to 100%)
2) Instructional Reading Level (44% to 57%)
3) Frustration Reading Level (0% to 43%)

The graph below shows the percentage of students within each level after the pre-test and post-test. It is evident that as the result of implementing different activities to strengthen students' reading comprehension, the results are positive. The number of students at frustration level decreased by 50%, while the number of students at instructional and independent levels increased by 150% and 30% respectively.

In addition to use descriptive statistics, inferential statistics help the researcher know if the difference between two means is statistically different. To do so the researcher must establish a hypothesis, run a t-test, and then decide whether to reject or confirm the prior hypothesis. Inferential statistics add validity to the study, since clear differences between two different set of data are established. I use the program SPSS to run a t-test using the data coming from the pre and post test.

The decision after running the t-test was to reject the null hypothesis (any difference between the two means is due to sample error) since p < 0.05. In conclusion, the average post-score (63) significantly exceed the average pre-score (47).  

■ CARI Test
According to Sejnost (2007) a Content Area Reading Inventory Test (CARI) help teachers understand to what extent students are successful at learning content area topics when reading. Taking into account that this type of test measures vocabulary, and understanding of implicit and explicit information; the results obtained can help the teacher assess what type of skills need to be further developed.

Considering the above points, the information was analyzed to determine to what extent each of these three skills was developed. The graph below summarizes the results. As it can be seen, students improved in understanding vocabulary, explicit and implicit information. The greatest change is observed in the vocabulary skill, from an average of 52% to 88%.

In addition, inferential statistics were used to analyze if the results of the pre-test and post-test, taking all the elements together (questions addressing vocabulary, implicit & explicit information) are statistically different.

The decision after running the t-test was to reject the null hypothesis (any difference between the two means is due to sample error) since p < 0.05. In conclusion, the average post-score (69) significantly exceed the average pre-score (47).


References

Chatal, R. (2001). Diagnostic and Instructional Uses of the Cloze Procedure. The Nera Journal, 37 (1), 3-6.

Sejnost, R. (2007). Reading and Writing across Content Areas. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.