Sampling of Students / Test Administration Procedure

The children were asked to copy words from a near-point sample (a sample at the desk as opposed to viewing a sample from the blackboard). The near-point sample included the words from the sentence, A the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs@ . This sentence was mixed up and printed on the top of the page for the students to copy below. The students were asked to copy the words in A cursive handwriting from the printed example@ and to A write as you usually do when you are trying to use good handwriting@ (Reisman, 1993 p. 43). The words were mixed up to eliminate memorization by fluent readers ensuring that all students read each word before they copied it. The students were given 2.5 minutes to copy the sample. After the time was up, the students were asked to put their pencils down. This ended the timed part of the test. The students were then asked to circle the last letter that they completed and finish the rest of the sample. The rate (speed) score was measured by counting the letters completed in 2.5 minutes. The quality of the sample was measured according to legibility, form, alignment, size and spacing. The criteria was used to evaluate the quality of the entire finished sample. The students in this grade three sample were asked to translate from a printed sample into cursive handwriting. If a student did not know a letter in handwriting, they were told to print it.

Scoring Procedure for Each Handwriting Sample

Analysis of the samples included scoring for overall quality of cursive handwriting development using the Minnesota Handwriting Test - Cursive Version. All letters of the samples were scored individually. In order to complete all five points, the letter must be completed in cursive handwriting. A maximum point score for each letter is five points. The maximum total point score on the MHT - CV is 170 indicated a better score on the test.

Legibility. For a student to receive one point score for legibility, the letter must be recognizable out of context and completed in cursive handwriting. It must include all strokes needed to complete the letter in the cursive form and contain no reversals or rotations. The letter must not look like another letter requiring interpretation. Legibility is weighted more heavily than the other categories. If a letter loses it= s points for legibility, it scores 0 for the other four categories (Reisman, 1993). The maximum point score for the Legibility category on the MHT - CV is 34.

Form. For a student to receive one point score for form, the quality of the letter must be present. In order to decrease subjectivity of this interpretation, the lines that should be curved should not have sharp points. In this area the connecting strokes between each letter is excluded as this will be scored in spacing. Continuous lines that should be pointed are not curved. The areas requiring closure of letters do not have gaps greater than one sixteenth of an inch. Extensions (over closing of lines opposite to gaps) are not greater than one-sixteenth of an inch. The cross on the A t@ must be within one-sixteenth of the baseline of the midline (dotted middle line) and the curve of the A k@ may extend no more than one-eighth of an inch over the dotted middle line. The maximum point score for the Form category on the MHT - CV is 34.

Alignment. This criteria refers to the position of the letters on the bottom line. To receive one point, the letter must rest within one-sixteenth inch of the bottom line or baseline (Reisman, 1993, p. 46). The maximum point score for Alignment category on the MHT - CV is 34.

Size. To receive one point score for size, all parts of the letter must be within one-sixteenth of an inch of the line that would be touched by the letter (baseline or middle dotted line). Letters cannot be too big or too small based on the scoring criteria (Reisman, 1993). The maximum point score for the Size category on the MHT - CV is 34.

Spacing. Spacing criteria includes both letter and word spacing in the test sample. Letter spacing requires a smooth connection stroke between no more than a one-quarter of an inch between letters. Word spacing requires a space of more than a quarter inch between words. Enough space should be allowed to eliminate overlapping of letters and demonstrate a smooth connection between letters. Words should not A run into@ each other looking like one word rather than two (Reisman, 1993). The maximum point score for the Spacing category on the MHT - CV is 34.

Reliability of the Research Version of the Minnesota Handwriting Test

Reliability studies of the MHT demonstrated high inter rater reliability for two experienced scorers of twenty samples ( r=0.99) for total test scores. The range by category was r=0.90 for form to r=0.99 for alignment and size (Reisman, 1993, p. 48). For another rater who was inexperienced, twenty samples were scored and compared to the experienced raters. The correlation obtained on the total test scores was r=0.98 with a range in category from r=0.87 to r=0.98 (Reisman, 1993, p. 48).

Another inexperienced rater achieved 86% agreement with a second rater on 15 samples. These inexperienced raters used the printed directions and learned the scoring independently (Reisman, 1993, p. 49). Reisman (1993) postulated that the high reliability between raters may be attributed to the precise directions and ruler measurement of the samples. This limits the amount of subjective input into the evaluation of printing.

Intra rater reliability of the MHT was studied to determine the consistency of scoring within individual raters. Three raters ranging in experience using the MHT scored twenty samples. They re-scored the same samples five to seven days later. The two experienced raters achieved 98.5% - 98.7% agreement (Reisman, 1993, p. 49). The inexperienced rater achieved 96.4% agreement. A score between r=0.80 and 1.00 are considered to be highly reliable. Scores between r=0.60 and r=0.79 are considered to be moderately reliable (Dumont, Vincent and Mazer, 2002). Therefore, intra and inter rater reliability studies for the Minnesota Handwriting Test were significant statistically.

Test re-test reliability did not achieve as high scores as the other reliability studies. Reisman (1993) attributes this lower correlation to possible differences in test conditions or students= motivation and attention to task in two testing periods (p. 52). The correlation for total accuracy scores were r-0.72 with a between school range of r=0./58 - 0.94 (Reisman, 1993, p. 50). Reisman (1993) recommended that A therapists using the MHT in the evaluation process consult the classroom teacher to verify whether a handwriting sample is an accurate representation of a particular student= s performance@ (p. 51).

Pontello (1999) used the Minnesota Handwriting Test for evaluating the effectiveness of one printing program over another in teaching grade one students to print. Pontello employed a blind observer (one who did not know which class had which program) for scoring the MHT samples. This author achieved statistically significant agreement with the blind evaluator (r=0.99) . Intra rater reliability achieved significant results (r=0.99) between first and second scores of the blind evaluator (Pontello, 1999).

The preliminary data on the Minnesota Handwriting Test has been established. The Minnesota Handwriting Test has recently been published by the Psychological Corporation in San Antonio, Texas. Reisman (1999), Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (new name) has undergone further inter rater and intra rater reliability tests throughout the United States prior to publication. This printing assessment tool has achieved to have very good reliability from both an intra and inter rater reliability factor. Pontello (1999) used the Research Version of the MHT.

Validity of the Minnesota Handwriting Test

Although the Minnesota Handwriting Test - cursive version has face validity, research data on its validity is not available. A study completed by Reisman (1990) which looked at children who were referred to occupational therapy for handwriting intervention. This research determined that children who score the lowest on the MHT - printed version from a sample of second grade students (N-565) were the children that required handwriting intervention according to teachers and occupational therapists. The differences among four groups of students; regular classroom, no special education, mainstreamed students who received special education for part of the day, students in the regular classroom with handwriting difficulties, and mainstreamed students receiving special education and occupational therapy, were statistically significant (Reisman, 1990, p. 851). This study identified that students with poor handwriting indeed scored the lowest on the MHT - printed version in a large sample. This appears to indicate that the lower the score on the MHT correlates with poor handwriting in large samples of students.

Study Procedure

Using the cursive handwriting samples obtained from two grade three classrooms (N=~55) this researcher will train eight raters to evaluate the samples using the criteria of the Minnesota Handwriting Test - Cursive Version. All raters will undergo a training period where they will be asked to score twenty samples. Once completing twenty samples using the scoring criteria, this researcher will meet with them to review and discuss how the scores were achieved and measured. Following this, each rater will complete another twenty different evaluations. These scores will then be compared to establish inter rater reliability . For this particular study, a total of 160 samples will be completed by eight raters. Each rater will re-score all twenty samples following five to seven days to assess for intra rater reliability. All test samples will be mixed so that the rater has no reference to the previous score. All samples will be previously scored using an experienced rater and the MHT-CV scoring criteria. These scores will be compared with the scores of the other eight trained raters. The raters will be made up of occupational therapists and teachers. Generally, these people have some experience in evaluation of handwriting skills and standardized testing procedures.

Once reliability information is achieved, the Minnesota Handwriting Test - cursive version will be used to gather more data for ongoing normative information gathering. This will enable an evaluation of a larger sample for identifying developmental sequence of cursive handwriting skills to be used for norm referencing. Data gathering using the Minnesota Handwriting Test following the reliability studies will occur starting September 2002 until June 2003. The subjects will include three grade three classes at three different schools. The test procedure will occur once a month from October to June. The data gathering will occur during the same week and at the same time of day. Data analysis will differentiate among whole class results, the result for boys and the results for girls. There is evidence to suggest in the literature that boys develop handwriting skills approximately six months slower than girls. This will be investigated as the norms are identified.

An evaluation of the method used to teach students cursive handwriting in the grade three sample may also be investigated to enable the researcher to identify the effectiveness of one program over another in teaching cursive handwriting skills to grade three students.

Publishing the Minnesota Handwriting Test - Cursive Version.