Reliability

General Information
Name: Test of Pre-School Early Literacy (TOPEL)
Year of Publication: 2007
Publisher: Pro-Ed: An International Publisher; Christopher J.
Lonigan, Richard K. Wagner, Joseph K. Torgensen
Cost: $247.00
General Purpose: Designed to identify children at-risk or
developing problems in literacy and: 1) To identify children who
are likely to have problems learning to read and write, 2) To
document progress in early literacy-related skills as a result of
intervention, and 3) To measure early literacy skills in research
studies.

Administration and Scoring Procedures

Administration time:Approx. 30 Minutes
3 Subtests: 1) Print knowledge, 2) Definitional vocabulary, and
3) Phonological awareness
Print Knowledge: measures early knowledge about written
language conventions and form & alphabet knowledge
Scoring: 1) circle childs response to the first 22 items in
record booklet, write responses for the remaining items, 2)
Correct answers receive 1 point, 3) Incorrect responses receive 0
points, and 4) Total raw score - the # of correct test items up to
the ceiling in all three item sets.
Ceiling: continue administration until child makes 3 incorrect
responses in a row or all of the items in the set are administered

Overall, the TOPEL is highly reliable based on the normative

sample. See below table which shows specific data in relation to
the TOPELs reliability:
Dayna Denoyer, Alexa Materna, Jessica Osos, Lauren Parzianello, Cora Santman
Michigan State University; East Lansing, MI

Assessment Tasks: Descriptions and Examples

Subtest 1: Print Knowledge
Directions: the child is asked to identify letters and written words, point to specific letters, names specific letters,
identify letters associated with specific sounds, and say the sounds associated with specific letters.
Examples:
1.
Find the picture that has letters in it.
2.
These are pictures of a book. Which one shows the name of the book?
Subtest 2: Definitional Vocabulary
Directions: Open Picture Book, as child looks at the page, read colored text in Examiner Record Booklet and
follow the instructions. Child is shown a picture, then asked: 1) What is this? - used to determine i the child can
correctly name what the illustration depicts, and 2) What does this do? - to find out whether the child knows a
salient function of the item in the illustration.
Examples:
1.
Say, I am going to show you some pictures and I want you to answer the questions I ask you
about each picture.
2.
Point to picture (bed). Say, What is this? (bed). What is it for? (sleep on, lie on).
Subtest 3: Phonological Awareness
Directions: 1) Set A & B (Items 1-12): child is asked to say a word, then to say what is left after dropping out
specific sounds (elision), 2) Set C & D (Items 13-27): child is asked to listen to separate sounds and combine
them to form a word (blending), 3) Open Picture book to Practice Items A & B. 4) present the practice items as
described in Examiner Record Booklet. 5) Following administration of practice items, you may provide feedback
to the child for the first 3 items in each item set.
Examples:
1.
Say, Look at these pictures: (point to the picture as you name them) ball, mop, man, bat. My word
is batman. Say batman. (batman). Now point to batman without bat.
2.
If correct, say: Thats right, batman without bat is man. Lets try the next one.
3.
If incorrect, say, Almost. The answer is man because bat-man without bat is just man. Lets try
the next one.

Adequacy of the Standardization Sample

TOPEL was normed on a sample of 842 children residing in 12

states by trained personnel in numerous cities and rural areas in
the spring, fall, and winter of 2004 .
Norming sites were selected by two methods: 1) Examiners were
located by accessing the PRO-ED customer files and by asking
current users of early childhood tests if they would participate in
the standardization effort. Those who responded were sent
materials to test 20 children whose demographic makeup matched
that of their community, and 2) The authors established major sites
in Los Angeles, CA; Buffalo, NY; Mandan, ND; and Weatherford,
OK.

Item Representativeness and

Appropriateness

Some pictures are not up to date or relevant any more. For

example, the phone in Subtest 2 (pg DV5) looks like it is from the
90s which 3-5 year olds from present time would not be familiar
with.
The font used within the picture book uses as and gs that are not
in the traditional form of handwriting (a and g vs. a and g), which
could be confusing to students who have not been exposed to these
formats of the letters.

Definitional Vocabulary: measures a childs single-word oral

vocabulary and definitional vocabulary.
Scoring: 1) Record childs responses as well as a score, 2)
Correct answers = 1 point, 3) Incorrect answers = 0 points, and
4) Score the 2 parts of each item separately.
Ceiling: child must miss both questions on 3 items in a row
Phonological awareness:
Scoring: 1) Circle or write childs response in Examiner
Booklet, 2) Correct answers = 1 point, 3) Incorrect answers = 0
points, and 4) Raw score for this subtest is the total # or correct
items up to the ceiling in all 4 item sets
Ceiling: continue testing until child makes 3 incorrect
responses in a row or until all the items in a set are administered.
Then administer sets B, C, D.
Composite score: calculated by combining the scores from the
three subtests

Validity
Overall: Based on the information provided in this chapter, one may conclude that the TOPEL is interpreted
appropriately as a valid measure of early literacy abilities. Examiners can use the TOPEL with confidence,
especially when assessing young children residing in deprived environments.
Content-Description Validity: procedures involve the systematic examination of the test content to determine
whether it covers a representative sample of the behavior domain to be measured.
Criterion-Prediction Validity: procedures indicate the effectiveness of a test in predicting an individuals
performance in specific activities. In other words, if the interpretation of the TOPEL as a measure of early literacy
is accurate, the TOPEL subtest and index scores should correlate well with other test scores that are also known to
be related to these abilities.
- To establish criterion-prediction validity for the TOPEL, data was collected on a sample of 154 children (3-,
4-, 5-, y/o). All children in sample were descripted as developing typically for their age.
- Data was collected on 6 criterion measures - TERA-3, EOWPVT, CTOPP Elision subtest, CTOPP Blending
Words, TERA-3 Reading Quotient, and Get Ready to Read.
- Based on the collected data, in all but one comparison, the TOPEl subtests and composite possess large to
very large relationships with the criterion measures. These findings provide evidence of the validity of the
TOPEL as a measure of early literacy skills.
Construct-Identification Validity: the extent to which the test may be said to measure a theoretical construct or
trait. It relates to the degree to which the underlying traits of the test can be identified and to the extent to which
these traits reflect the theoretical model on which the test is based.

Summary and Recommendation

An issue to consider when administering the TOPEL is the

test manual does not provide suggestions on how to
accommodate for individuals with disabilities.
Another issue to consider is the norming samples used to
prepare the TOPEL norms. The samples collected are 11
years old. The question is raised as to the relevance of the
sample used compared to the current demographics of our
society.
Overall, the test is easy to administer. The test booklet gives
you everything you need to know and walks you step by step
through how to administer the test with color coordination.
The test assesses what its supposed to be assessing. We
would recommend this test to professionals who are looking
to assess preschool early literacy.