Results from international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) garner considerable attention in the media, academia, and among policy makers. Although there is widespread recognition that ILSAs can provide useful information, there is debate about what types of comparisons are the most meaningful and what could be done to assure more sound…

For those tests solely composed of testlets, local item independency assumption tends to be violated. This study, by using empirical data from a large-scale state assessment program, was interested in investigates the effects of using different models on equating results under the non-equivalent group anchor-test (NEAT) design. Specifically, the…

Component skills and discourse frameworks of reading have identified characteristics of readers and texts that influence comprehension. However, these 2 frameworks have not previously been integrated in a comprehensive and systematic way to explain performance on any standardized assessment of reading comprehension that is in widespread use across…

Approximately 20% of students experience reading failure each year. One of the difficulties associated with this large percentage is that it has been documented that pre-service teachers may not be receiving the most appropriate training regarding reading acquisition. The present study sought to determine if pre-service teachers were proficient in…

This study examined the relationship between ninth-grade students' use of connectives (temporal, causal, adversative, and additive) in functional writing and performance on standards-based/criterion-referenced measures of reading and writing. Specifically, structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques were used to examine the relationship between…

This study investigates the use of screening assessments within the increasingly popular Response to Intervention (RTI) framework, specifically seeking to collect concurrent validity evidence on one potential new screening tool, the Independent Reading Level Assessment (IRLA) framework. Furthermore, this study builds on existing literature by…

The present study used the mixed Rasch model (MRM) to identify subgroups of readers within a sample of students taking an EFL reading comprehension test. Six hundred and two (602) Chinese college students took a reading test and a lexico-grammatical knowledge test and completed a Metacognitive and Cognitive Strategy Use Questionnaire (MCSUQ)…

The purpose of this study was to reveal whether the technique of Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) in Turkish Language teaching had influence on students' skills in reading and writing. In the study, the mixed method, which included quantitative and qualitative dimensions together, was used. The study group was made up of 16…

The purpose of this year-long project was to examine an instructional framework intended to help middle school teachers create instruction that responds to students' reading identities while also helping students learn the skills they need to be successful readers. The project used a formative design approach in order to achieve 3 pedagogical…

This study is an attempt to investigate impact of using a technique, namely, genre-based approach on improving reading ability on Iranian EFL learners' achievement. Therefore, an attempt was made to compare genre-based approach to teaching reading with traditional approaches. For achieving this purpose, by administering the Oxford Quick Placement…

The quasi-experimental study examined the effects of pairing Rock and Read with Readers Theater and only Rock and Read on second grade students' reading fluency scores. The 51 subjects were pre- and post-tested on five different reading fluency measures. A series of 3 × 2 repeated measures ANOVAs revealed statistically significant interaction…

Young adolescent students are at a critical time in their schooling. Once they embark into secondary schooling their prospects of achieving well across a range of curriculum subjects can often depend on their ability to critically analyse and understand a range of text types. This article focuses on 34 young adolescent students' views about…

This longitudinal study of 78 Canadian English-speaking students examined the applicability of the stability, cumulative, and compensatory models in reading comprehension development. Archival government-mandated assessments of reading comprehension at Grades 3, 6, and 10, and the Canadian Test of Basic Skills measure of reading comprehension…

The present study was an attempt to examine the impact of input flooding (IF) and textual enhancement (TIE) on EFL learners' syntactic development. Four homogenous groups were selected based on the pre-test and placement tests. During the treatment, the first group (i.e., IF) received reading comprehension passages in which the structure was…

Source-based essays are evaluated both on the quality of the writing and the content appropriate interpretation and use of source material. Hence, composing a high-quality source-based essay (an essay written based on source material) relies on skills related to both reading (the sources) and writing (the essay) skills. As such, source-based…