A Quantitative Analysis of the Difficulty of Reading Materials

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the characteristics of reading materials representing different levels of difficulty. The con cept of difficulty as it applies to most of the standardized materials in educational psychology is primarily a statistical concept. The diffi culty of an item is generally determined in terms of the number of per sons in some group which is able successfully to respond to the item in question. Little is known about the characteristics of the material which is thus statistically located at a given level of difficulty. This is particularly true of reading materials. Owing to the awareness of such a deficiency in the field of reading, the following data were se cured and analyzed.