Exploring the relationship between reading comprehension and math word problem test achievement

This professional inquiry explores the relationships between students' reading comprehension and their performance on a grade six math word problem test, and it evaluates the readability of the wording for word problem test items. Students' results on the 2008 Alberta Provincial Achievement Test for Part B, Word Problems, were compared to their reading levels on the Canadian Achievement Test and the Gates MacGinitie Reading Tests, to evaluate the correlation between reading comprehension and word problem performance. The researcher calculated the readability of test questions and invited students to comment on the difficulty of the wording for each question. This investigation revealed a strong positive correlation between the students' levels of reading comprehension and their scores on the math Provincial Achievement Test Part B. Analysis of scores for individual questions on the math test revealed some surprising anomalies that deserve investigation in a later study. The author shares insights that she will apply to her own teaching to assist students to improve their reading comprehension abilities and their math word problem success. She also provides advice for test construction and recommends further investigation of this research question with a larger sample size. --P. ii.