Readability,Human Interest,and Coverage of Ten Textbooks on Special Education Assessment

Abstract

Ten textbooks on psychological and educational assessment in special education were analyzed with the Flesch formula for reading ease and interest. Reading levels were surprisingly low, with six of the texts in the "difficult, college level" category, three books in the "fairly difficult, grade 10 to 12" category, and the other book in the "standard, grade 8-9" category. The human interest sores of eight of the books were classified as "dull," other two fell in the "mildly interesting" category. Text-book coverage on a variety of topics was also analyzed and Charted. Great disparity was found in the topics treated by the various authors. Widest coverage across textbooks was found for achievement, while scantly coverage was found for topics of objective tests, precision teaching, and modality assessment. A surprising number of book lacked an author index, and only four books included a glossary.

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