The purpose of the study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of word callers related to the concepts of reading fluency and reading comprehension. To this end, second-grade students (N = 408) completed a series of reading fluency and reading comprehension assessments, and their teachers (N = 31) completed word caller nominations and a…

Using a cross-sectional design and five Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills measures, researchers tested for gender differences in reading skills for 1,218 kindergarten through fifth-grade students. A series of two-way repeated measures analyses of variance with time of year (fall, winter, and spring) serving as the within-subjects…

Universal screening measures are an integral component of any tiered system of instructional delivery. Recent studies of screening measures have often excluded examinations of bias in predictive validity. The present study examined a common screening instrument for evidence of bias in predictive validity across the four disaggregation categories…

First Step to Success (First Step; Walker et al., 1997, 1998) is a secondary-level intervention for students with behavior problems in early elementary school. The purposes of this study were to assess whether effects in student behavior and academics at posttest shown in a recent efficacy trial (Walker et al., 2009) were maintained at follow-up…

The cognitive attributes of Grade 1 students who responded adequately and inadequately to a Tier 2 reading intervention were evaluated. The groups included inadequate responders based on decoding and fluency criteria (n = 29), only fluency criteria (n = 75), adequate responders (n = 85), and typically achieving students (n = 69). The cognitive…

Reading fluency is a critical component of effective reading instruction for students of early elementary age. However, national data suggest that 40% of U.S. fourth-grade students are nonfluent readers. Implementing evidence-based, time-efficient, and procedurally standardized instructional strategies may help address this problem. This study…

Academic tasks that include easy responses increase the probability that less preferred and/or more challenging tasks will be performed. The current study applied the process of arranging easier stimuli within reading word lists with behavioral momentum and an interspersal technique. We hypothesized that the behavioral momentum condition, which…

A theory-based approach was used to investigate the relations among Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) initial skill status in the fall of first grade, NWF growth across the school year, and end-of-year oral reading fluency and reading comprehension (RC) skill. Hypotheses were anchored to Perfetti's verbal efficiency theory and the role of automaticity…

The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate a universal screening battery for reading that is appropriate for older elementary students in a response to intervention model. Multiple measures of reading and reading correlates were administered to 230 fourth-grade children. Teachers rated children's reading skills, academic competence,…

This study examined the effectiveness of a yearlong, researcher-provided, Tier 2 (secondary) intervention with a group of sixth-graders. The intervention emphasized word recognition, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Participants scored below a proficiency level on their state accountability test and were compared to a similar group of…

The use of curriculum-based measures for the purpose of school-wide screening and progress monitoring of reading within school reform processes has been discussed extensively in the literature over the past several years. Little has been done, however, in terms of evaluating the predictive bias of these measures across ethnic groups, particularly…

The current study applied meta-analytic procedures to brief experimental analysis research of reading fluency interventions to better inform practice and suggest areas for future research. Thirteen studies were examined to determine what magnitude of effect was needed to identify an intervention as the most effective within a brief experimental…

The primary potential benefit of the response-to-intervention model is its utility for serving students with unmet instructional or behavioral needs. Although discussion and debates have often focused on the potential "promise and pitfalls" of using response to intervention to make eligibility decisions, less attention has been devoted to key…

Schools are increasingly using curriculum-based measurement reading procedures to conduct universal screenings as a means of identifying students whose level and rate of growth are discrepant from peers. Despite abundant evidence supporting the reliability and validity of curriculum-based measurement-reading procedures, researchers have not fully…

Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading fluency (CBM-R) procedures have been developed to screen and evaluate student performance in reference to local norms and/or benchmarks. Recent changes in federal law have set the stage to use CBM-R data within a response to intervention model to guide high-stakes educational decisions (e.g.,…