Reading comprehension tests involve not only reading passages and answering questions but also making choices such as the test-taking strategy to use, whether to search passages for answers, and where to begin searching. We examined the associations between student characteristics, passage type, test-taking strategies, and students' time searching…

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a graphic organizer for improving the expository text comprehension of adolescent Spanish-English bilingual students with learning disabilities. Students were two females and one male. Using a multiple baseline single case design, researchers taught students to create a funnel map graphic…

Despite the growing interest in incorporating response time data into item response models, there has been a lack of research investigating how the effect of speed on the probability of a correct response varies across different groups (e.g., experimental conditions) for various items (i.e., differential response time item analysis). Furthermore,…

Howard, Overstreet, and Ticknor build on the framework they established in their first book "It's Not 'One More Thing'." They extend their practical how-to strategies for enacting culturally responsive and affirming literacy instruction in K-12 classrooms specific to literacy assessment, engaging texts used for literacy instruction, and…

This qualitative study surfaced beliefs around reading instruction and reading development at the onset of an elementary literacy methods course. Prior understandings and knowledge around reading instruction and reading acquisition emerge through various experiences and have the potential to contradict notions presented by teacher educators. This…

Background: Cognitive and linguistic factors have been incorporated into models to explain reading comprehension beyond classical models of reading. This study explores the contribution of executive functions, mainly domain-general and reading-specific cognitive flexibility, in reading comprehension of science texts in monolingual Spanish speaking…

The purpose of this two-phase, sequential explanatory mixed-methods research study was to examine the correlation between kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers' self-efficacy and the impact on literacy achievement to determine how professional development (PD) positively impacted teachers with high self-efficacy. The study was conducted in a…

Contextual factors have been identified as greatly influencing students' reading performance. However, the collaborative influence of key contextual factors on students' reading performance is still elusive and warrants further exploration. Based on Walberg's educational productivity theory and Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory,…

This study aimed to investigate the effects of judgment frames, cues, and test criteria on the accuracy of metacomprehension monitoring. The design was a 2 (rating comprehension vs. predicting performance) × 2 (memory cues vs. comprehension cues) × 2 (detailed questions test vs. inferential questions test) mixed design with judgment frames and…

A common practical challenge is how to assign ability estimates to all incorrect and all correct response patterns when using item response theory (IRT) models and maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) since ability estimates for these types of responses equal -8 or +8. This article uses a simulation study and data from an operational K-12…

Purpose: This study explores the roles of morphological skills (Morphological Awareness, Morphological-Syntactic-Knowledge,Morphological-Semantic-Knowledge, and Morphological-Orthographic/Phonological-Knowledge), vocabulary (knowledge of definitions, relationships between words, and polysemous meanings), and syntax in contributing to adolescent…

Many low-stakes assessments, such as international large-scale surveys, are administered during time-limited testing sessions and some test-takers are not able to endorse the last items of the test, resulting in not-reached (NR) items. However, because the test has no consequence for the respondents, these NR items can also stem from quitting the…

Recent research has proven the importance of non-cognitive determinants, such as motivation and resilience, in improving reading achievement. This study provides insights on how these two determinants are displayed by students living in contexts of high social vulnerability. A mixed methodology was used to conduct the study in six schools across…

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: There are extensive concerns about the size of speech-language caseloads in schools. However, little empirical data exist regarding the patterns of speech-language services enrollment. We reviewed data from several hundred schools in a large state to explore the role of school-level factors in speech-language case enrollment. Method:…