Exploring the Promise of a Number Line Assessment to Help Identify Students At-Risk in Mathematics

This manuscript presents the results from a study to investigate the technical characteristics of two versions of a number line assessment (NLA 0-20 and NLA 0-100). The sample consisted of 60 kindergarten and 46 first grade students. Both number line versions had sufficient alternate form and test-retest reliability. The NLA 0-20 had low and the NLA 0-100 had low to moderate correlations with math achievement. Results indicated that the NLA 0-100 explained a small, but unique portion of the variance in first grade mathematics performance when controlling for performance on the Assessing Student Proficiency in Early Number Sense (ASPENS) a set of early numeracy screening measures. We discuss study results related to the utility of adding number line assessment tasks to mathematics screening batteries and propose additional areas of research.