Blog: Colorado Classroom   A new test has confirmed the link
between vocabulary and reading comprehension and created a
systematic way to assess students' grasp of word meaning,
according to new data released Thursday by the National
Assessment of Educational Progress.    Only 11 states tested
12th-graders in a pilot program, and Colorado wasn't among them.
The state's girls scored higher than boys in fourth grade, but
there was no significant gender gap in eighth grade.   The
vocabulary questions didn't ask students to define words but
offered multiple- choice answers for what a given word meant in
the context of the reading passage. It's the "intersection of
word knowledge and passage comprehension" that offers insight,
according to NAEP.  "The format of the test gave us the
opportunity to peer into what students are doing with the words
as they're going through the text and trying to understand it,"
said University of Pittsburgh researcher Margaret McKeown. "It
gives us insight into what happens in compre