This article presents the author's response to Karen Eppley's "Reading Mastery as Pedagogy of Erasure". Eppley's commentary (2011) on Dr. Stockard's article, "Increasing Reading Skills in Rural Areas: An Analysis of Three Rural School Districts" (Stockard, 2011), uses selected details as points of departure for a critique of…

In this paper, the author asks the question, "Can Boys Succeed Later in Life if They Can't Read as Well as Girls?" He notes troubling statistics that illustrate lower performance of boys compared to girls, including performance on state reading tests, and graduation rates from both high school and college. He says that the good news is that the…

The study of reading in restricted contexts ultimately short changes children. The continuous proliferation of research data results in teacher training courses that are overloaded with marginally relevant material. A vast number of "teachable skills" are isolated, and well-meaning publishers produce sophisticated but unnecessary materials;…

Testing reading by testing the bits and pieces of reading leads to teaching the bits and pieces instead of teaching reading. Reading is a total skill rather than a subject, and a skill can best be tested by performance. Some of the purposes for reading tests include showing test score improvement, diagnosis, satisfying parents, grouping or sorting…

Refutes Leslie MacLean and Harvey Goldstein's charges (in the January 1988 "Kappan") that the National Assessment of Educational Progress Reading Proficiency Scale is based on a single assumption (reading proficiency) accounting for responses to all reading tasks. Characterizes the scale as developmental, with points corresponding to…

Rebuffs Leslie Maclean and Harvey Goldstein's claims that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Proficiency Scale is unidimensional. Critics' confusion may stem from failing to separate what a test measures from a score's usefulness. The Lexile Reading Scale should be integrated with the NAEP scale. Includes eight…

Past reading research suggests that measures of reading comprehension should be made context dependent. Reading comprehension test questions that are context dependent are best answered by examinees only after the accompanying passages have been read. Recently, there has been some disagreement concerning the exact importance of context dependence…

Notes that the National Assessment of Educational Progress's (NAEP) recent assessment found fundamental changes taking place in education and in society which render the apolitical, uniform, "one size fits all" approach to education dysfunctional. Calls for reconceptualizing reading instruction to benefit all readers rather than just the…

Concludes that valid reading tests are needed for adults and should be designed differently than tests for academic or school-related reading. (AEA)

Cautions that criterion referenced tests are no more effective at diagnosing comprehension subskills than are traditional instruments, and they may lend false credibility to the subskill approach to comprehension. (AEA)

High-stakes testing means that one test is used to make important decisions about students, teachers, and schools. This paper comes out against high-stakes testing, taking the position that the central concern is that testing has become a means of controlling instruction as opposed to a way of gathering information to help students become better…

Discusses test-taking skills and their application to tests of reading achievement. Presents a rationale for teaching these skills, lists a comprehensive set of skills relevant to standardized reading tests, and offers suggestions for teaching the skills and helping children use them. (FL)

Discusses whether high levels of skill in one's second language (L2) leads to loss of performance in one's first language (L1). Data are reviewed indicating that a high level of reading skill in L2 may indeed be associated with slower reading in L1. (21 references) (Author/VWL)

Reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT) and compares the use and misuse of the test as revealed through published surveys. Finds problems in the use of the NDRT to diagnose the specific reading needs and deficiencies of low-achieving students and to measure individual growth. (CBC)

Describes the Reading Comprehension Interview, an individual interview procedure for gathering information about students' perceptions of classroom reading activities. Explains how it can help teachers gain insights into students' actual reading strategies. Contains a copy of the interview. (FL)