Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS) Technical Manual

This concise manual presents the powerful research and technical data behind the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills™ (TILLS™). Professionals will find clear answers to frequently asked questions about the technical data as they learn the specifics of TILLS development and field testing and the composition of the normative sample.

Full chapters are devoted to the validity of TILLS, the reliability of TILLS, and the evaluation and reduction of test bias. Readers will get valuable information on

• test development using item response theory (IRT) procedures
• measurements of validity for each of the three purposes of TILLS
• evidence of additional aspects of construct validity, including confirmation that TILLS scores reflect age-related change and measure skills at both the sound/word and sentence/discourse levels
• the documenting of patterns of relative strengths and weaknesses and tracking change over time
• TILLS sensitivity and specificity levels, broken down into 9 age bands meaningful to the development of language and literacy skills
• strong reliability evidence for intra-class stability, inter-scorer reliability, and test-retest reliability
• the assessment process to remove or minimize item-level bias and subtest-level bias
• when to adjust cut scores for identifying language and literacy disorders

With this comprehensive resource on the unparalleled research behind TILLS, professionals will be confident that their language and literacy assessments will be completed with an extensively tested, psychometrically sound tool.

About TILLS

TEST OF INTEGRATED LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLS (TILLS) is the reliable, valid assessment professionals need to test oral and written language skills in students ages 6—18 years. TILLS is a comprehensive, norm-referenced test that has been standardized for three purposes:

• To identify language and literacy disorders
• To document patterns of relative strengths and weaknesses
• To track changes in language and literacy skills over time

To achieve these purposes, TILLS is constructed to allow you to derive scores for identifying, tracking, and profiling a student’s strengths and weaknesses and interpreting the results to support decisions about what to do next.

Learn more about TILLS and explore the key benefits.

Test of Integrated Language & Literacy Skills™ and TILLS™ are trademarks of Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

The contents of TILLS were developed under Grant No. R324A100354 from the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, is Professor Emerita in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and former Director of the Ph.D. program in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at Western Michigan University. She is author of the book Language and Literacy Disorders: Infancy Through Adolescence, and first author of the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS), as well as editor-in-chief of the journal, Topics in Language Disorders. Dr. Nelson's research and publications focus on curriculum-based language and literacy assessment and intervention.

Elena Plante, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at The University of Arizona in Tucson. She is a fellow both of The University of Arizona's College of Science and of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Her areas of research interest include language learning and assessment practices. She in addition to multiple journal articles on these topics, Dr. Plante is a co-author on the Pediatric Test of Brain Injury and the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills. Dr. Plante has also been using neuroimaging to explore the brain bases of language and cognition for the last 2 decades. She has active national and international collaborations in the areas of neuroimaging, language, and learning.

Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Sc.D., CCC-SLP, Brewer Smith Professor Emerita in the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

She was affiliated with the Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center and Boston University School of Medicine for 32 years, was a Research Scientist at the National Center for Neurogenic Communication Disorders at The University of Arizona, and a Research Professor at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Helm-Estabrooks is board certified by the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorder (ANCDS). Her awards include American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and ANCDS Honors, and the Kleffner Lifetime Clinical Career Award. She is an ASHA Fellow and has published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, 7 books, 21 chapters, and 6 standardized tests.

Gillian Hotz, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is The Director of the KiDZ Neuroscience Center, Research Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida.

Dr. Hotz is Principal Investigator on a variety of funded research projects for acute care and rehabilitation of children with traumatic brain injury and injury prevention. She has presented at local, national, and international conferences; has published numerous papers on the topic of traumatic brain injury; and is coauthor of the Brief Test of Head Injury (with Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, PRO-ED, 1991). Dr. Hotz is a member of a number of advisory groups, including the Florida Injury Prevention Advisory Council and the Sarah Jane Brain Project/The National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan.