Oral Reading Fluency Measures Research Articles

Dual-Language Books’ Potential Affordances for Biliteracy Development: Measuring Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension

Dual-language books’ (DLBs) two-language format could support biliteracy development, but little is known about how children read them. Fifty-four third and fifth graders read aloud DLBs with English or Spanish first on each page to determine DLBs’ potential affordances. Although there were no significant differences in oral reading fluency or reading comprehension measures by the language printed first, there was some evidence of holistic bilingual processing. Students’ English fluency scores were also significantly higher than their Spanish scores. Findings indicate needs for more research about DLBs and potentially for increased attention to Spanish literacy skills in U.S. dual-language programs.

Effects of a Summer Tutoring Program on Reading Achievement in Grades K-5

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an 18-day summer tutoring program in which graduate student tutors delivered 15 minutes of differentiated reading instruction (DRI) and a 30-minute interactive read-aloud (IRA) lesson each day. Students in grades K-5 (N = 179) attending a summer program at one urban elementary school completed a lesson-specific combination of pretest and posttest measures of letter-sound knowledge, decoding skills, oral reading fluency, and academic reading attitudes. Students were assigned to groups targeting phonemic awareness and word recognition (PAWR), word recognition and fluency (WRAF), fluency and comprehension (FAC), or vocabulary and comprehension (VAC) based on skill profiles. Paired-samples statistical tests were used to analyze pretest and posttest measures, and tutors were observed with a checklist to document implementation fidelity. Results indicated significant gains on specific subskill mastery measures of letter-sound knowledge for students in PAWR groups and decoding skills for students in PAWR and WRAF groups. Results were not significant for a curriculum-based measure of oral reading fluency for students in FAC groups and were significantly negative for students in VAC groups. There were no significant differences in gains based on instructional group size. There was no evidence of summer learning loss on academic reading attitudes. Tutors were able to implement DRI and IRA lessons with acceptable fidelity. These findings suggest that a summer tutoring program delivered by graduate students can improve targeted reading skills without negatively impacting reading attitudes.

Predicting children’s perceived reading proficiency with prosody modeling

Reading is a foundational skill and the focus of school-level education efforts across countries. The assessment of linguistic competence from oral reading has long been the subject of scientific studies linking the reader’s comprehension of the text to various measures of oral reading fluency. Given the time and resource intensive nature of such assessment, it is of interest to automate the prediction of reading fluency from audio recordings using the same pedagogical rubrics. Given recent findings about the importance of prosody to the communicative purpose of reading aloud, we discuss new approaches to modeling it reliably for the automatic assessment task. We present a new data set of children’s oral reading screened for minimum word decoding skill and rated for comprehensibility by two human experts. We develop a system for the automatic prediction of rater scores that also facilitates insights about the complementarity and inter-dependence of computed lexical accuracy, rate and prosodic features as corroborated by multiple performance measures. With achieved values of correlation and agreement that surpass the corresponding inter-rater measures, we also show how text-dependent prosodic features, informed by speech rate and speaking style, contribute prominently to system performance.

Cognitive flexibility explains unique variance in reading comprehension for elementary students

The goal was to determine the extent to which cognitive flexibility measured by category switching predicted unique variance in reading comprehension for elementary students after accounting for vocabulary and oral reading fluency. One hundred and one second through fifth grade students completed curriculum-based measures of reading comprehension and oral reading fluency, as well as vocabulary and cognitive flexibility (category switching) measures. As predicted, hierarchical linear regression showed that vocabulary and oral reading fluency were associated with reading comprehension, though only the association with oral reading fluency was significant. Importantly, cognitive flexibility (category switching) predicted unique variance after accounting for the other variables, demonstrating the relevance of category switching flexibility for reading comprehension. Exploratory analyses revealed that the unique role of cognitive flexibility was evident for older elementary students, but not for younger elementary students. These findings support the active view of reading, especially the importance of cognitive flexibility in supporting reading comprehension.

Righting Reading in Middle School: Readable English Helps Underperforming Adolescent Readers

This study measured the effectiveness of Readable English, a reading fluency and comprehension program, on underperforming sixth, seventh, and eighth grade rural, American English-speaking students over the course of one school year. Students were randomly assigned to either the intervention condition (n = 167) or the typical practice condition (n = 177). Middle school students in the intervention condition scored statistically significantly higher than students in the typical practice condition on measures of EasyCBM CCSS Comprehension (partial η 2 effect size [ES] = 0.10 [moderate]), EasyCBM Passage Reading Fluency (PRF) rate (ES = 0.18 [large]), EasyCBM PRF reading accuracy (ES= 0.08 [moderate]), WRMT-3 Oral Reading Fluency (ES = 0.13 [approaching large]), and WRMT-3 Passage Comprehension (ES = 0.25 [large]). Moderate grade level growth in measures of oral reading fluency led to extensive growth of reading comprehension skills. The eyewatering cost estimates to accelerate reading remediation per middle school student ($800 to $3,800 per student) and the paucity of research-proven interventions require innovating ways to combine and leverage the benefits of technology and intensive, effective curriculum instruction. The data show that Readable English is a strong reading program able to close reading gaps and grow students to grade level reading proficiency.

Using Readable English leads to reading gains for rural elementary students: An experimental study.

This study measured whether and to what degree Readable English effectively improves reading fluency and comprehension skills of adolescent learners. This experimental study (N = 855) measured the efficacy of two different multiple component reading programs for students in grades three, four, and five. Students were pre-and post-tested using EasyCBM Grade Level Reading Benchmarks. Students scoring at/below the 30th percentile on either benchmark were also assessed with the WRMT-3 Passage Reading Comprehension and Oral Reading Fluency measures. Students received 45-60 instructional hours in either Readable English or Amplify CKLA during their regular ELA class. Students who received Readable English instruction significantly outperformed students in the typical practice condition on all measures of reading fluency and comprehension. The intervention condition's EasyCBM benchmark reading rate (m = 29.6 WCPM), reading accuracy (m = 3.1%), and comprehension (m = 1.9) surpassed the control group's reading rate (m = 17.4 WCPM), accuracy (m = 0.7%), and comprehension (m = 0.7) WRMT-3 ORF showed students in the Readable English intervention condition (m = 13.4 growth scale values [GSV] and m = 1.0 grade equivalency) outscored students in the control condition (m = 7.8 GSV and m = 0.5 grade equivalency). WRMT-3 Passage Comprehension showed Readable English students (m = 11.0 GSV and m = 0.9 grade equivalency) outgrew control condition students (m = 4.4 GSV and m = 0.3 grade equivalency). In a school year fraught with pandemic instructional interruptions and learning loss, students in grades 3-5 who received Readable English instruction closed reading gaps. The meaningful gains in reading rate and accuracy experienced by students in the intervention group will give exponential word reading volume dividends to students able to read text faster and more accurately going forward, helping them become more skilled readers.

Investigating the Relationship between Perceptions of a “Good Reader” and Reading Performance among Elementary and Middle School Students: An Exploratory Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between student perceptions of a “good reader” and their reading performance. A total of 100 students (grades 1–8) who attended an after-school program for low-income youth completed the Student Perceptions of a Good Reader Scale (SPGRS) that includes two subscales: Perceptions-Decoding Efficiency (PerDecoding) and Perceptions-Comprehension (PerComp). Additionally, a measure of reading comprehension (Measures of Academic Progress Growth Reading [MAP]) and a curriculum-based measure of oral reading fluency (ORF) were administered. Participants’ scores on the PerComp subscale were significantly higher than on the PerDecoding subscale for both skilled and unskilled readers, indicating that, regardless of level of reading performance, these young readers perceive that behaviors related to reading comprehension are more important than behaviors related to efficiently decoding words in defining a good reader. Regression analyses reveal that both types of perceptions (decoding efficiency and comprehension) are significantly related to reading comprehension for upper elementary and middle school students. However, participants’ ORF and reading comprehension did not significantly predict their perceptions of a good reader. Despite some reading experts’ concerns that the current emphasis on reading fluency as an indicator of student reading proficiency may negatively impact children’s views of reading, these findings reveal that children associated behaviors with reading comprehension as more highly indicative of a good reader.

Evaluating the Efficacy of an English Language Development Program for Middle School English Learners

This paper reports the outcomes of an experimental evaluation of Direct Instruction Spoken English (DISE), an English language curriculum that focuses on developing English speaking, listening, and comprehension skills in English Learners (ELs). Twenty-nine middle schools in three states were randomly assigned to teach DISE Level 1 or their typical English language development program. Treatment teachers received two days of training and taught daily lessons. Project staff assessed 746 sixth and seventh-grade students with a proximal measure of English language proficiency and distal measures of language and oral reading fluency. Analyses of oral English language suggested differences between intervention conditions favored the DISE condition for students who began with lower English language proficiency and accumulated when taught over two years. Differences between intervention conditions were not observed after only one year of instruction and for students with advanced levels of English language proficiency. The findings suggest that an evidence-based English oral language program that included frequent teacher demonstrations and opportunities for students to practice speaking English may improve English oral language skills for middle school students. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2022.2045993.

Comparing the Growth and Predictive Performance of a Traditional Oral Reading Fluency Measure With an Experimental Novel Measure

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 evaluation [CORE]) with Traditional CBM-R WCPM scores to determine which provides more reliable growth estimates and demonstrates better predictive performance of reading comprehension and state reading test scores. Results indicated that in general, CORE had better (a) within-growth properties (smaller SDs of slope estimates and higher reliability), and (b) predictive performance (lower root mean square error, and higher R2, sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve values). These results suggest increased measurement precision for the model-based CORE scores compared with Traditional CBM-R, providing preliminary evidence that CORE can be used for consequential assessment.

Comparing Slope Stability and Validity for General Outcome and Specific Subskill Mastery Measurement

Progress monitoring data are central to making informed decisions on intervention intensification for struggling learners. The general outcome measure (GOM) of curriculum-based measurement of oral reading fluency (CBM-R) has been found to correlate with high-stakes assessment; however, data are highly variable, resulting in decisions that must be made 15 weeks after implementation of intervention. Recent researchers have recommended the use of both GOM and specific subskill mastery measurement (SSMM) to overcome the challenges presented with the use of GOM alone, but research on the efficacy of this approach is limited. Using Bayesian and ordinary least squares regression, we compared the GOM of CBM-R with SSMM slopes for words read correctly per minute (wcpm) per week at 5, 7, and 12 weeks, and explored the relation of the respective slopes with subsequent standardized assessment tools for struggling upper elementary students receiving word reading intervention. We found that the SSMM had a similar slope to that noted in prior research (i.e., β = 1.46 wcpm per week). This slope was significant and related to future standardized assessment outcomes across the various time points. The slope for CBM-R was not significant or related to future assessment outcomes. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

External evaluations for dyslexia: do the data support parent concerns?

A grassroots movement of parents who fear that their children's reading struggles are going unrecognized at school has led to dyslexia laws in all but three states in the U.S. The current study was undertaken to provide data relevant to this topic by characterizing the reading profiles of 71 children referred for testing at a center specializing in the assessment of reading disabilities. These children were receiving instruction and intervention in reading across the tiers of instructional support in general and special education within their schools. On average, the children demonstrated equivalent deficits in print literacy skills on norm-referenced assessments regardless of the intensity of their reading support, and the majority of children who were only receiving tier 1 instruction exhibited characteristics of dyslexia. Moreover, 69% of children only receiving tier 1 instruction, and all remaining children, performed below benchmark expectations on a curriculum-based measure of oral reading fluency. While these data are not an evaluation of the implementation of the state's dyslexia laws or the statewide implementation of RTI, they provide data characterizing the real struggles and lack of identification of children whose parents seek an external evaluation of their children's reading skills. However, they are set in the context of a state in which 66% of public-school children cannot read proficiently by the end of the third grade. The reading struggles highlighted in this clinic referral sample are unexceptional in the larger state context.

Evidence for automated scoring and shorter passages of CBM-R in early elementary school.

Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading fluency (CBM-R) is widely used across the United States as a strong indicator of comprehension and overall reading achievement, but has several limitations including errors in administration and large standard errors of measurement. The purpose of this study is to compare scoring methods and passage lengths of CBM-R in an effort to evaluate potential improvements upon traditional CBM-R limitations. For a sample of 902 students in Grades 2 through 4, who collectively read 13,766 passages, we used mixed-effect models to estimate differences in CBM-R scores and examine the effects of (a) scoring method (comparing a human scoring criterion vs. traditional human or automatic speech recognition [ASR] scoring), and (b) passage length (25, 50, or 85 words, and traditional CBM-R length). We also examined differences in word score (correct/incorrect) agreement rates between human-to-human scoring and human-to-ASR scoring. Our results indicated that ASR can be applied in schools to score CBM-R, and that scores for shorter passages are comparable to traditional passages. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Addressing the Large Standard Error of Traditional CBM-R: Estimating the Conditional Standard Error of a Model-Based Estimate of CBM-R

Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading fluency (CBM-R) is widely used across the country as a quick measure of reading proficiency that also serves as a good predictor of comprehension and overall reading achievement, but it has several practical and technical inadequacies, including a large standard error of measurement (SEM). Reducing the SEM of CBM-R scores has positive implications for educators using these measures to screen or monitor student growth. The purpose of this study was to compare the SEM of traditional CBM-R words correct per minute (WCPM) fluency scores and the conditional SEM (CSEM) of model-based WCPM estimates, particularly for students with or at risk of poor reading outcomes. We found (a) the average CSEM for the model-based WCPM estimates was substantially smaller than the reported SEMs of traditional CBM-R systems, especially for scores at/below the 25th percentile, and (b) a large proportion (84%) of sample scores, and an even larger proportion of scores at/below the 25th percentile (about 99%) had a smaller CSEM than the reported SEMs of traditional CBM-R systems.

The Differential Responsiveness of Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Learning Disabilities to Intensive Remedial Reading Instruction

This study examined the collective and differentiated effects of a remedial reading intervention, Corrective Reading Decoding Level B, on the reading skills and social adjustment of elementary and middle school students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and learning disabilities (LD). Students were provided an average of three 40–45 min lessons per week over the course of nearly 4 months. Statistically significant reading skill improvements were found between students who received the intervention (n = 45) and those in the comparison condition (n = 23). The mean average basic reading skills of students with EBD (n = 10) improved from the low average range at pretest to the average range at posttest. Statistically significant differences were found between the posttest basic reading skills of students with EBD and their counterparts with LD (n = 35). Statistically significant reductions in the overall social adjustment problems and internalizing problems of participating students were found. The total problems of students with EBD moved from the clinical to the normal range at posttest. Except for performance on measures of oral reading fluency, students with EBD were significantly more responsive than their LD counterparts on measures of core reading skills, attention problems, ADHD Problems, and anxiety problems. Limitations, implications, and future research directions are discussed.

Oral reading fluency, reading motivation and reading comprehension among second graders

The relationships between oral reading fluency, reading motivation and reading comprehension were examined at the beginning and the end of second grade among 121 Hebrew speaking students. The contribution of oral reading fluency and three sub-factors of motivation—self-concept as a reader, value attached to reading and literacy outloud (social interactions about literacy)—at the beginning of the school year to reading comprehension at the end of the year was also examined. Results indicate that all oral reading fluency measures and all motivational sub-factors were significantly correlated with reading comprehension at the end of second grade. In addition, positive change in self-concept as a reader along the school year was related to improvement in reading achievement. Finally, text rate and self-concept as a reader at the beginning of second grade together predicted 28% of the variance in reading comprehension at the end of second grade. The results support the notion that the cognitive approach to reading cannot explain all the variance in reading comprehension and emphasize the necessity of including motivational factors in the language arts curriculum in the early stages of reading acquisition.

Written verb use and diversity in children with Developmental Language Disorder: stepping stones to academic writing

Verb use and the production of verb argument structure in the written texts of children in elementary school is a key stepping stone towards academic writing success that has remained relatively unexplored and is a notable gap in our understanding of writing development. To evaluate the role of verbs in the written narrative texts of children, we compared verb use in 10 year old children that had specific weaknesses in oral language, those with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), and samples of children of the same age (CA) and the same raw scores on an oral language task (language ability or LAb). Standardised measures of oral language, reading fluency, and spelling were completed. Participants then completed a standardised writing task and the texts were examined for verb argument structure, verb production and verb diversity. No between-group differences were found in the written narrative texts in relation to the production of verb argument structures. By contrast, the number of verbs produced, and the number of different verbs used differed significantly. The total number of verbs and number of different verbs produced by the children with DLD was commensurate with their LAb peers but not their CA matched peers. All children relied on a small group of high frequency verbs in their writing, although there was evidence of greater verb diversity in the older typically developing children. Verbs produced and their diversity in narrative writing was predicted by both an oral language formulated sentences task and reading fluency, thus demonstrating the close links between expressive oral language, reading, and writing production in all children.

Validation of curriculum-based reading passages and comparison of college students with and without dyslexia or ADHD.

Although reading is an essential skill for college success, little is known about how college students with and without disabilities read within their actual college curriculum. In the present article, we report on two studies addressing this issue. Within study 1, we developed and validated curriculum-based oral reading fluency measures using a sample of college students without disabilities (N = 125). In study 2, we administered the curriculum-based measures to four groups (each with n = 25): college students without disabilities, college students with dyslexia, college students with ADHD, and a clinical control group. Study 1 results indicated that the curriculum-based measures demonstrated good reliability and criterion validity. Results from study 2 indicated that college students with dyslexia were substantially slower readers than all groups without dyslexia (ds > 1.8). The curriculum-based measures demonstrated high accuracy in classifying participants with dyslexia and with impaired oral reading fluency (area under the curve > .94). Implications for incorporating curriculum-based measures in postsecondary settings are discussed.

Relationships among Special Education Teachers' Knowledge, Instructional Practice and Students' Performance in Reading Fluency

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among (1) special education teachers’ knowledge for teaching reading fluency, (2) the specific instructional practices they used in fluency instruction, and (3) gains of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) on a performance measure of oral reading fluency (ORF). Analyses based on multilevel linear modeling and analysis of covariance indicated that for 42 special education teachers teaching third, fourth, and fifth graders with SLD in intensive reading groups, teachers’ knowledge for teaching reading fluency predicted student gains on ORF measures, but did not predict their instructional practice. Furthermore, teacher practice did not predict student gains on ORF. Practical implications and future research are discussed.

I'm Not Throwing Away My Shot: What Alexander Hamilton Can Tell Us about Standard Reading Interventions

AbstractThis article summarizes findings from a two‐year randomized control trial, focusing on a subset of 194 fourth graders with reading comprehension scores at or below the 15th percentile. Students in the treatment condition received an average of 94 daily 30‐min sessions of small group intervention implemented with fidelity by well‐trained research staff. Standardized measures of word identification, vocabulary, and comprehension, and an oral reading fluency measure were administered pre‐ and post‐testing. Results indicated no statistically significant differences between students in the treatment or business‐as‐usual conditions; effect sizes for comprehension were small (0.14 and 0.19); a quantile regression, however, revealed slightly larger effect sizes for students at the 0.25 to 0.50 quantiles. The effect sizes for word identification, fluency, and vocabulary were less than 0.05. We discuss implications of the study, as well as limitations and directions for future research. We conclude with recommendations for intensifying interventions.

Early reading skill profiles in typically developing and at-risk first grade readers to inform targeted early reading instruction

This study identified distinct, homogeneous latent profiles of at-risk (n = 141) and not at-risk (n = 149) first grade readers. Separate latent profile analyses were conducted with each subgroup using measures of phonological awareness, decoding, linguistic comprehension, and oral reading fluency. This study also examined which measures best differentiated the latent profiles. Finally, we examined differences on two measures of reading comprehension as a function of profile membership. Results showed two latent profiles of at-risk students and three latent profiles of not at-risk students. Latent profiles were generally rank ordered with regard to achievement across measures. However, the higher performing at-risk profile and the lowest performing not at-risk profile were nearly identical across measures. Phonological awareness and decoding measures were best at differentiating latent profiles, but linguistic comprehension was also important for the lowest performing students. Oral reading fluency was limited to distinguishing the highest achieving students from the other profiles, and did not perform well with the lower achieving profiles. Most of the pairwise comparisons of reading comprehension scores were consistent across measures, but the nearly identical profiles showed a significant difference on only one reading comprehension measure. Implications for identifying at-risk first grade readers and designing targeted early reading interventions for at-risk students are discussed.