Reading Abilities of College Senior Industrial Arts Majors with Emphasis in Power Mechanics Compared with Readability of Power Mechanics Textbooks.

The purpose of this study was to determine the compatibility of the reading level of students with the required power-mechanics textbooks used by senior industrial arts majors in the California State University and Colleges System. The data for this study were obtained from responses to the Schrammel-Gray High School and College Reading Test administered to 185 college seniors and from analyses of 22 power-mechanics textbooks, using the Flesch Formula of Readability. The results of the study indicated that the students had a reading-comprehension score range of nine grade levels, from seventh grade to sixteenth grade, with 26.6 percent of the students scoring at the sixteenth-grade level. The mean reading level of students was 12.8 grade level. The readability level of the textbooks varied from upper tenth grade to upper fourteenth grade. It was concluded that, to meet the average reading level of the present students, an adopted textbook should have a readability level of less than thirteenth grade. It was recommended that textbook publishers analyze their own textbooks for readability level and disseminate their findings to educators who may purchase their textbooks. (Author/MKM)