Story Problems Overview
The Story Problems test assesses the student's ability to correctly identify a number expression that matches a story problem read out loud by the examiner. As the student points to the number expression that represents the story problem, the examiner marks any errors on his/her copy of the score form. The resulting score is the total number of items responded to correctly.
This measure is only available as a screener; no progress monitoring forms are available.
Test Construction
The test consists of six items of two different types: Visual and Verbal. Three are addition, and three are subtraction stories. The first two items are visual, and the following four are verbal. For the two visual items, students are presented with four possible number expressions and instructed to select the option that corresponds to the visual story problem. In each item, the visual appears at the top of the page and the options are centered and aligned vertically beneath the picture. Only one option correctly corresponds with the visual story problem, and the other three choices are plausible distractors. The following four items are read to the student by the examiner. Students are prompted to solve the problem rather than point to the expression that represents it. For example: “There were seven cookies on the table. A girl ate two. How many cookies are on the table now?” The numbers used in all six items were chosen strategically to assess important first-grade skills identified by the standards and content experts (teachers, interventionists, math specialists, and researchers).
To administer this assessment for the purpose of universal screening:
- Log in to the FastBridge system as a teacher.
- Go to the Screening tab.
- Select the earlyMath English assessment.
- Select the SP column from the earlyMath English Screening page.
Here is what the teacher sees when administering the earlyMath English - Story Problems subtest.
For more information about the earlyMath English - Story Problems subtest complete the online earlyMath English course found in the Training & Resources section of the FastBridge system.
To do so, navigate to the Training & Resources tab, and click on the earlyMath English course tile.
Then select the Story Problems option on the vertical menu. Complete Lessons 1 through 8 in order to certify in the earlyMath English Story Problems subtest.