On the Validity of the Munsteraner Screening to Assess Predictors of Written Language Acquisition

The Munsteraner Screening (MUSC; Mannhaupt, 2016) is a widely used screening tool in educational research and practice to identify students with insufficient written-language abilities. However, there is only weak empirical evidence for the instrument, and the existing literature casts doubt on the quality of the instrument (Marx & Lenhard, 2010). The present study examines the validity of the MUSC using the data of N = 384 elementary students at two timepoints: the beginning and the end of the first school year. The results failed to replicate the assumed factor structure of the MUSC, which raises doubts about the structural validity of the test instrument and has great significance for educational practice. In contrast, the other psychometric parameters indicate a high quality of the test procedure.