The teaching of reading has been a source of contentious debate for many years. Margaret Meek Spencer contributed her passion for the importance of specific texts to help children learn to read. In addition to the kinds of texts to be used, important aspects of the debate include the relationship between national curriculum policies and robust…

Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading fluency (CBM-R) is used as an indicator of reading proficiency, and to measure at risk students' response to reading interventions to help ensure effective instruction. The purpose of this study was to compare model-based words read correctly per minute (WCPM) scores (computerized oral reading…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether school type (Title I versus non-Title I), English learner (EL) student percentage, and low-socioeconomic status (low-SES) student percentage could statistically predict the percentage of third-grade students who perform at the Meets Grade Level (MGL) performance on the State of Texas…

This report provides an update on the state of the research on testing accommodations. Previous reports by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) have covered research published since 1999. In this report, we summarize the research published in 2019. During 2019, 11 research studies were published on the topic of testing accommodations…

Research has established a strong relationship between silent reading comprehension and prosodic reading fluency among young readers, but much remains unknown about this relationship among older readers (Breen, Kaswer, Van Dyke, Krivokapic, & Landi, 2016; Cypert & Petro, 2019). The goal of this study was to determine the impact of prosodic…

Unlike alphabetic languages, Chinese text marks no word demarcation. Previous research inserted word-demarcating spaces into Chinese text but found inconsistent effects on reading efficiency. To address the potential trade-off effects of the additional length caused by inserted spaces, this study introduces color-and-font formatting as a word…

Current reading assessments put emphasis in the five components of reading competency, neglecting the self-efficacy needs of students. When students struggle with one of or all five components of reading competency, they could have negative feelings about themselves as a reader. This article offers teachers and effective user friendly assessment…

Although readers theater has traditionally been recommended as a method for improving reading fluency, this 18-week quasi-experimental study examined the effects of a readers theater instructional protocol that updates and expands on traditional approaches by adding specific tasks that engage students in various reading comprehension and…

The purpose of the present study is to determine if there is a relationship between oral narrative production and the reading comprehension of expository text. The researcher measured both overall and component scores for expository text comprehension and oral narrative production ability of 40 typically-developing fifth grade students. Findings…

The authors report findings from an evaluation of the reading competence of students in selected elementary schools in Trinidad and Tobago. The work was conducted in eight schools and involved the testing of 450 students in standards (grades) 1 and 5 for competence in comprehension, oral reading, and word recognition. Methods and results relating…

This study investigated Hong Kong secondary students' Classical Chinese (CC) reading comprehension, reading motivation, and the effects of different types of motivation on CC reading. Four hundred forty-eight seniors from four secondary schools in Hong Kong voluntarily completed a CC reading comprehension test and a reading motivation…

The state of Texas requires a reading inventory for all kinder, first, and second grades students, as well as the state assessment in reading for third grade. Educators face numerous challenges when attempting to teach children and meet the rigor on state assessments. In order for students to be successful on state assessments, teachers must…

The authors offer guidance on recognizing and resisting test-centric instruction in reading comprehension. They posit that five practices indicate a test-centric view of comprehension: when the tested content is privileged, when the test becomes the text, when annotation requirements replace strategic thinking, when test items frame how students…

The purpose of this study was to analyze published decoding tests, at the item level, to determine what decoding skills and discrete letter-patterns are assessed, and identify potential instructional implications of these measures. Twenty published word list decoding tests, either used in research or within a Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports…

Needs analysis is a critical step to undertake when executing the design and development of a course. This quantitative research aimed to investigate the engineering students' reasons for taking the TOEIC Listening and Reading Test and their needs for English language preparation for taking the test. The participants were 83 voluntary and…