23  Sentence Repetition

23.1 Task Description

Children listen to audio-recorded sentences and are prompted to repeat each sentence verbatim.

23.2 Construct

The Sentence Repetition task measures a child’s ability to recall and reproduce sentences of varying length and complexity. This task taps into syntactic processing, lexical knowledge, and verbal working memory.

23.3 Item Development

23.3.1 English

Sentences varied by:

  • Vocabulary: simpler, familiar vocabulary was used for easier items, while less frequent, complex vocabulary was used for harder items.
  • Sentence length: sentences ranged from 4 to 12 words.
  • Targets: one or two clauses were targeted by sentence. The targets varied by language. We selected target structures that have been shown to identify struggling readers and/or language difficulties in English. The following targets were used: article-noun, negative, passive, past, plural, possessive, prepositional phrase, question inversions, relative clause, and third person singular.

23.3.2 Spanish

Sentences varied by:

  • Vocabulary: simpler, familiar vocabulary was used for easier items, while less frequent, complex vocabulary was used for harder items.
  • Sentence length: sentences ranged from 4 to 12 words.
  • Targets: one or two clauses were targeted by sentence. The following targets were used: adjective agreement, article, conditional, direct object clitic, imperfect past, negative, preposition, preterite past, progressive, reflexive, relative clause, and subjunctive.

23.4 Scoring

Items were polytomously scored according to the following scoring scheme: 2: The sentence was fully repeated without any error. 1: The sentence was repeated with 2 or less errors. 0: The sentence was repeated with 3 or more errors.

23.5 Calibration Samples

Table 23.1: Demographic Characteristics of Calibration Samples for the English and Spanish Sentence Repetition Tasks
Characteristic
English
Spanish
K
N = 1,275		 G1
N = 1,695		 G2
N = 1,342		 K
N = 1,128		 G1
N = 1,313		 G2
N = 1,160
Timepoint





    Fall 2023 608 (48%) 666 (39%) 697 (52%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 357 (32%)
    Winter 2024 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 275 (25%)
    Fall 2024 667 (52%) 1,029 (61%) 645 (48%) 443 (100%) 522 (100%) 490 (44%)
Administration Format





    CAT 667 (52%) 1,029 (61%) 645 (48%) 443 (39%) 522 (40%) 528 (46%)
    Forms 608 (48%) 666 (39%) 697 (52%) 685 (61%) 791 (60%) 632 (54%)
Race





    American/Alaskan Native 48 (3.8%) 60 (3.6%) 26 (2.0%) 28 (6.3%) 32 (6.2%) 24 (2.1%)
    Asian 107 (8.5%) 166 (10.0%) 128 (10.0%) 11 (2.5%) 23 (4.4%) 20 (1.7%)
    Black/African American 131 (10%) 189 (11%) 163 (13%) 6 (1.4%) 9 (1.7%) 8 (0.7%)
    Not reported 219 (17%) 276 (17%) 230 (18%) 94 (21%) 142 (27%) 618 (53%)
    Other 315 (25%) 242 (15%) 128 (10.0%) 157 (36%) 91 (18%) 67 (5.8%)
    White 441 (35%) 731 (44%) 611 (48%) 146 (33%) 220 (43%) 419 (36%)
    Unknown 14 31 56 686 796 4
Ethnicity





    Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 790 (68%) 1,124 (68%) 820 (64%) 361 (98%) 494 (98%) 1,082 (95%)
    Intentional nonreport 13 (1.1%) 5 (0.3%) 3 (0.2%) 3 (0.8%) 2 (0.4%) 2 (0.2%)
    Not Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 359 (31%) 515 (31%) 449 (35%) 6 (1.6%) 10 (2.0%) 53 (4.7%)
    Unknown 113 51 70 758 807 23
Gender





    Female 573 (49%) 845 (52%) 622 (49%) 163 (45%) 274 (57%) 600 (53%)
    Male 600 (51%) 772 (48%) 646 (51%) 203 (55%) 206 (43%) 539 (47%)
    Non-binary 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (<0.1%)
    Unknown 102 78 74 762 833 20
Home Language





    English 655 (53%) 921 (57%) 789 (64%) 10 (2.3%) 26 (5.0%) 115 (10%)
    Spanish 504 (41%) 603 (38%) 355 (29%) 431 (98%) 489 (95%) 1,026 (89%)
    Other 77 (6.2%) 84 (5.2%) 92 (7.4%) 1 (0.2%) 0 (0%) 9 (0.8%)
    Unknown 39 87 106 686 798 10
English Proficiency Label





    (Re-)Classified Proficient 63 (5.8%) 113 (7.4%) 105 (8.6%) 23 (6.3%) 46 (9.6%) 184 (17%)
    English Learner 460 (43%) 546 (36%) 340 (28%) 335 (91%) 406 (85%) 821 (74%)
    English-only 559 (52%) 875 (57%) 776 (64%) 10 (2.7%) 25 (5.2%) 110 (9.9%)
    Unknown 193 161 121 760 836 45
Ever IEP/504 69 (6.9%) 141 (10%) 117 (12%) 33 (9.1%) 39 (8.6%) 89 (10%)
    Unknown 282 315 328 766 859 299
    Unknown


685 791 38

23.6 Psychometric Analysis

23.6.1 Basic Item Statistics

We excluded 0 items from the English task and 0 items from the Spanish task based on low response counts (n < 90). 0 items were excluded because they had no variance in the Spanish task, and 0 items in the English task. Additionally, we excluded 1 items from the English task and 1 items from the Spanish task based on low point-biserial correlations (r < 0.2). Table 23.2 summarizes the basic item characteristics, Figure 23.1 shows the relationship between point-biserial correlations and the proportion of correct responses for each item.

Table 23.2: Basic Item Statistics Before and After Application of Exclusion Criteria, for the English and Spanish Sentence Repetition Tasks
English
Spanish
Characteristic
Before Excl.
After Excl.
Before Excl.
After Excl.
N = 180 N = 179 N = 158 N = 157
No. of Responses 253 (243) 253 (243) 345 (228) 346 (228)
Proportion Correct 1.03 (0.55) 1.03 (0.55) 0.72 (0.48) 0.72 (0.47)
Point-biserial Correlation 0.61 (0.14) 0.61 (0.14) 0.61 (0.14) 0.61 (0.14)
Excluded (n < 90) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Excluded (pbis < .2) 1 (0.6%) 0 (0%) 1 (0.6%) 0 (0%)
Excluded (no variation) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Figure 23.1: Scatterplot Showing Point-biserial (Item-total) Correlations and Proportion of Correct Responses for the English (Panel A) and Spanish (Panel B) Sentence Repetition Tasks

23.6.2 Rasch Analysis

23.6.2.1 Item Location Estimates

Figure 23.2: Scatterplot Showing Item Location and Proportion of Correct Response for the English (Panel A) and Spanish (Panel B) Sentence Repetition Tasks

23.6.2.2 Item Fit Statistics

Table 23.3: Frequencies of Item Misfit Categories Based on Infit/Outfit MSE Values for the English and Spanish Sentence Repetition Tasks
English
Spanish
Infit MSE
A B C D Total A B C D Total
Outfit MSE
A 163 0 0 0 163 122 0 0 0 122
B 9 0 0 0 9 28 0 0 0 28
C 5 0 0 0 5 4 0 1 0 5
D 2 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 2
Total 179 0 0 0 179 156 0 1 0 157

23.6.2.3 Person Location Estimates

Figure 23.3: Scatterplot Showing Person Location Estimates (Obtained using the MLE method) and the Proportion of Correct Responses for English and Spanish Sentence Repetition Tasks

23.6.2.4 Person Fit Statistics

Table 23.4: Frequencies of Person Misfit Categories Based on Infit/Outfit MSE Values for the English and Spanish Sentence Repetition Tasks
English
Spanish
Infit MSE
A B C D Total A B C D Total
Outfit MSE
A 2,207 37 69 3 2,316 1,652 13 60 9 1,734
B 526 1,036 0 0 1,562 516 945 2 1 1,464
C 64 0 79 14 157 67 0 45 7 119
D 61 0 44 47 152 35 0 38 97 170
Total 2,858 1,073 192 64 4,187 2,270 958 145 114 3,487

23.6.2.5 Distribution of Theta Estimates

Figure 23.4: Distribution of Theta Estimates for the English and Spanish Sentence Repetition Tasks

23.6.2.6 Wright Maps

Figure 23.5: Wright Maps Showing the Relationship Between Item and Person Location Estimates for the English Sentence Repetition Task
Figure 23.6: Wright Maps Showing the Relationship Between Item and Person Location Estimates for the Spanish Sentence Repetition Task

23.6.2.7 Model Summary

Table 23.5: Summary of Rasch Model Statistics for the English and Spanish Sentence Repetition Tasks
English
Spanish
Item
Person
Item
Person
Characteristic N = 179 N = 4,187 N = 157 N = 3,487
Logit Scale Location 0.26 (2.43) 0.12 (-1.18, 1.26) 1.29 (1.93) 0.15 (-1.29, 1.37)
Outfit 0.99 (0.34) 0.63 (0.38, 0.93) 0.91 (0.63) 0.58 (0.34, 0.90)
Infit 0.98 (0.11) 0.74 (0.49, 1.00) 0.99 (0.14) 0.71 (0.47, 0.99)
Reliability of Separation 0.8898 0.8497 0.9046 0.8590
23.6.2.7.1 Final Number of Items

Following the exclusion of items with point-biserial correlations < .20 and items with poor fit statistics, the final versions of the task contain 179 and 157 for the English and Spanish task, respectively.

23.7 Criterion Validity Evidence

23.7.1 Sample

Table 23.6: Demographic Characteristics of the Concurrent Criterion Validity Evidence Samples for the English and Spanish Sentence Repetition Tasks
Characteristic
English
Spanish
K
N = 262		 G1
N = 230		 G2
N = 203		 K
N = 238		 G1
N = 216		 G2
N = 265
Timepoint





    Winter 2024 262 (100%) 230 (100%) 203 (100%) 238 (100%) 216 (100%) 265 (100%)
Race





    American/Alaskan Native 5 (1.9%) 3 (1.3%) 1 (0.5%) 2 (0.8%) 4 (1.9%) 4 (1.5%)
    Asian 36 (14%) 37 (16%) 8 (4.3%) 7 (3.0%) 2 (0.9%) 0 (0%)
    Black/African American 29 (11%) 30 (13%) 34 (18%) 1 (0.4%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
    Not reported 29 (11%) 32 (14%) 13 (7.0%) 132 (56%) 146 (69%) 172 (65%)
    Other 73 (28%) 44 (19%) 3 (1.6%) 41 (17%) 8 (3.8%) 18 (6.8%)
    White 87 (34%) 84 (37%) 126 (68%) 53 (22%) 53 (25%) 69 (26%)
    Unknown 3 0 18 2 3 2
Ethnicity





    Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 106 (40%) 96 (42%) 120 (59%) 214 (91%) 200 (93%) 248 (98%)
    Intentional nonreport 8 (3.1%) 2 (0.9%) 0 (0%) 1 (0.4%) 0 (0%) 2 (0.8%)
    Not Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 148 (56%) 132 (57%) 82 (41%) 20 (8.5%) 16 (7.4%) 2 (0.8%)
    Unknown 0 0 1 3 0 13
Gender





    Female 130 (50%) 105 (46%) 98 (48%) 126 (53%) 105 (49%) 137 (52%)
    Male 132 (50%) 125 (54%) 105 (52%) 112 (47%) 111 (51%) 128 (48%)
Home Language





    English 192 (75%) 172 (75%) 127 (82%) 29 (12%) 23 (11%) 23 (8.7%)
    Spanish 32 (12%) 25 (11%) 23 (15%) 204 (87%) 189 (89%) 239 (91%)
    Other 33 (13%) 32 (14%) 5 (3.2%) 2 (0.9%) 1 (0.5%) 1 (0.4%)
    Unknown 5 1 48 3 3 2
English Proficiency Label





    (Re-)Classified Proficient 11 (5.1%) 18 (8.0%) 11 (7.1%) 31 (14%) 24 (11%) 42 (17%)
    English Learner 49 (23%) 40 (18%) 17 (11%) 182 (81%) 167 (80%) 178 (73%)
    English-only 157 (72%) 167 (74%) 127 (82%) 11 (4.9%) 19 (9.0%) 23 (9.5%)
    Unknown 45 5 48 14 6 22
Ever IEP/504 20 (9.9%) 22 (12%) 17 (11%) 20 (9.5%) 22 (11%) 16 (12%)
    Unknown 59 50 48 27 12 127

English Sentence Repetition was correlated with the Sentence Repetition subtest from the Woodcock-Johnson IV (WJ IV OL) test (Schrank, McGrew, and Mather 2014). Spanish Sentence Repetition was correlated with the Recordando Oraciones subtest from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, 4th Edition, Spanish (CELF 4 Spanish) test (Semel et al. 2006).

Table 23.7: Concurrent Criterion Validity Correlations for the English and Spanish Sentence Repetition Tasks
English
Spanish
All
EL
All
Grade n r [CI] n r [CI] n r [CI]
K 262 0.69 [0.62, 0.75] 49 0.54 [0.31, 0.71] 238 0.69 [0.62, 0.76]
G1 230 0.69 [0.61, 0.75] 40 0.55 [0.29, 0.74] 216 0.80 [0.75, 0.84]
G2 203 0.77 [0.71, 0.82] NA NA 265 0.69 [0.62, 0.75]