This dissertation examines how implementing READ 180 for 9th grade students affects their Lexile level and reading ability. The research focuses on two questions: what changes were noticed in the students' Lexile levels? and what program recommendations can be made moving forward? The methodology used was PDSA and improvement science. The study…

This study investigated special educational needs (SEN) teachers' (n = 29) assessment practices and the accuracy of their ratings of the students' (M age = 12.75 years, n = 55) skill levels in reading fluency and reading comprehension. Teachers rated their sixth grade students' fluency and comprehension on a three-point scale, and the students…

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented disruption in students' academic development. Using reading test scores from 5 million U.S. students in grades 3-8, we tracked changes in achievement across the first two years of the pandemic. Average fall 2021 reading test scores in grades 3-8 were 0.09 to 0.17 standard deviations lower relative to…

This study examined the effects of Reading Intervention for Adolescents (RIA) and a mentoring intervention (MI) implemented for 1 year with ninth-grade English learners (ELs) with reading difficulties. Eligible students enrolled at three urban high schools were randomly assigned to the RIA (n = 142), MI (n = 163), RIA and MI (n = 164), or…

There have been numerous recent calls in literacy research and teacher education to disrupt the 'struggling reader' label, but a dearth of empirical studies on the topic. This qualitative analysis explores the complex issues preservice teachers (PSTs) faced as they examined young readers' sense-making through a reading assessment assignment. Our…

Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to compare decoding and literacyrelated skills of children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech (sCAS) to children with reading disorders (RD) and no history of speech sound disorder (RD-no SSD) to determine if the groups differ in decoding and the endophenotypes that contribute to RD. We also…

The Virginia public-school assessment and accountability system impacted the statewide reading proficiency scores for students with disabilities. The purpose of this causal-comparative quantitative study was applied to answer the research question, and hypothesis statement and determine the difference in the reading improvement measured by the…

Accurate and efficient universal screening is a foundational component of multi-tiered systems of support for reading. By the time students reach middle school, educators often have extant data available to inform screening decisions. Therefore, the decision to collect additional data to inform screening should be considered carefully. The…

When recommending a program to achieve objectives such as improving learning outcomes for middle school students, school psychologists need information about cost-effectiveness to identify the best fit for student needs and school budgets. However, few cost studies of evidence-based instructional programs exist. We compared the cost-effectiveness…

This conceptual paper addresses fluency instruction and assessment for students with or at risk for reading disabilities. Although a multidimensional construct, fluency tests more often have been limited to measuring students' reading rate and accuracy. The reasons for this are explained as well as how fluency tests have influenced classroom…

This study measured the effectiveness of Readable English, a reading fluency and comprehension program, on underperforming sixth, seventh, and eighth grade rural, American English-speaking students over the course of one school year. Students were randomly assigned to either the intervention condition (n = 167) or the typical practice condition (n…

Despite ongoing efforts to reform schools, the longstanding racial/ethnic achievement gap still persists, particularly for boys of color; in many cases, the gap is widening, particularly for students transitioning from elementary to middle school. The focus of this study was to examine the impact of effective instructional practices for struggling…

This study utilized the Simple View of Reading (SVR) model cognitive subtypes to determine the impact of text-to-speech (TTS) software on the reading comprehension of 94 grade 8 students with reading difficulties. Method: paired samples t tests for all four SVR groups were conducted to examine reading comprehension scores under TTS and no-TTS…

Oral reading fluency (ORF) assessments measure how quickly and accurately students read within one minute. They are widely used at the elementary level; however, due to the typical structure and class sizes in middle schools, such individualized assessments are less feasible and, therefore, less frequently used. Two exploratory studies…

Reading comprehension tests vary in format and characteristics, which may influence the extent to which component skills are involved in test performance. With students in Grades 6 to 8 with reading difficulties, dominance analyses examined the differential importance of component reading and language skills (word- and text-reading fluency,…