Kindergarten Assessment: Analysis of the Child Behavioral Rating Scale (CBRS)

• Main Author: Rowley, Brock
• Other Authors: Tindal, Gerald
• Language: en_US
• Published: University of Oregon 2015
• Subjects: Behavior; Cut-Score; Rating-Scales
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19222

Oregon’s Kindergarten Assessment (KA) is mandatory for all incoming Oregon kindergarteners starting in the 2013-14 school year. One component of Oregon’s KA is the Child Behavioral Rating Scale (CBRS), which Oregon has adapted into the Approaches to Learning Assessment. Teachers complete the CBRS during the first four to six weeks of school. This study uses a convenience sample of 731 kindergarten students (across two years) from one district in Oregon to analyze behavioral readiness (self-regulation and social-emotional behaviors) as well as easyCBM indicators of academic readiness. The CBRS is compared with the Child Behavioral Checklist and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional as criterion measures. Parent and teacher responses to the CBRS are analyzed for comparability, and a Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis of the data is used to determine optimal cut points (maximizing sensitivity and specificity) for predicting whether students are at risk compared to the criterion measure cut scores. Demographic variables of gender, English Language Learner status, and Socioeconomic Status, are analyzed as control variables. Pre-post behavior change on the CBRS is document over the kindergarten year, and kindergarten academic benchmark measures is used as a dependent measure. This study explores whether: (a) parent responses differ significantly from teacher responses (internal consistency), (b) a cut score on the CBRS successfully sorts students into categories of "typically developing" or "in need of further assessment," (c) teacher predictions align to the proposed CBRS cut score, (d) academic risk is correlated to the established CBRS cut score, and (e) change in behavior over the course of kindergarten is measured (pre-post) by the CBRS. Results from this research could support identification of students for interventions in both kindergarten and early childhood programs.