Use of the Automated Readability Index for Evaluating Peer-Prepared Material for Use in Adult Reading Education.

This study tested the concept of “peer-prepared” reading material for black adults and included a readability analysis. Stories relating to life experiences were tape-recorded in an informal setting; thus the resulting stories are based on natural language patterns and familiar topics. Three of the stories were written at cording to the Automated Readability Index black high school remedial reading class. comprehended than the “harder” version (as different levels of difficulty ac(ARI) and presented to a predominantly The two “easier” versions were better reflected in cloze scores). Five stories were published in a booklet, “Big Red and Other Adult Stories”, and given for evaluation to two groups: (1) graduate students in reading, and (2) a predominantly black group of trainees in a federally funded project. The stories were rated as being of high interest, particularly for black adults, suitable as reading instructional material for this group, and authentic. The ARI which is collected as material is typed on a modified electric typewriter is based on word length and sentence length. The test-retest reliabilities were calculated for ARI (r =.98), Flesch Count (r =.70) and Fog Count (r =.76). A FORTRAN IV computer program for taking ARI Counts was also prepared. PREFACE Many individuals were associated with this project. The initial idea to apply the “peer-prepared” concept to this kind of reading material was that of Dr. John Van Deusen, Professor of Education at Georgia Southern College. His assistant, Miss Karen Kelley, and he collected some of the stories on tape. Mr. Junius Reed, then a member of the Continuing Education staff at Georgia Southern College, was helpful in collecting the stories and in editing them. Dr. Robert Lewis, Associate Professor of Reading at Georgia Southern College, and Miss Linda Moody of the Continuing Education staff checked the original peer-prepared stories to insure that they represented appropriate adult education reading material. Dr. Lewis constructed and administered the questionnaire given the reading specialist graduate students. Miss Moody constructed and administered the questionnaire given the trainees. Mrs. Patricia Anderson conducted the validation study as her .A. thesis at Georgia Southern College under the direction of Dr. J. Peter Kincaid. Assistant Professor of Psychology. Dr. Georgelle Thomas, Associate Professor of Psychology at. Georgia Southern College conducted the study testing the reliability of the readability forumlas. Mr. Gerald Hartley, then a graduate student at Georgia Southern Colieve, did some initial work with this reliability study. Mr. Merritt Suggs, then Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Georgia Southern College, wrote the computer program for taking the Automated Readability Index counts. Mr. Leroy Delionbach, then ar graduate student at Georgia Southern College, checked out the program. Mr. Robert Roettele, engineer with the Human Resources Laboratory at Wright-Patterson :lir Force Base, designed the Automated Readability Index tabulator and buil/1 the tabulator and modified the typewriter used in this study. J. Peter Kincaid August 1972