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…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Reading aims to measure reading comprehension for students in the United States and to monitor progress in our education system. NAEP Reading is developed based on an assessment framework document that is periodically revised to reflect the latest understandings about reading comprehension…

Automaticity in recognizing the words in a text is fundamental to comprehension. If the number of words readers need to stop and decode exceeds their ability to retain their understanding of a narrative's plot or an expository text's description, their comprehension suffers. The conventional intervention for students who lack the automaticity to…

According to the National Reading Panel's (2000) report, there was not enough evidence in previous reading research to recommend the instructional practice of having students spend classroom time reading independently. The 2019 National Assessment of Education Progress report, however, reported that more than half of fourth grade and eighth grade…

Attention skills are strong cross-sectional predictors of reading comprehension from childhood through to adolescence. However, less is known about the developmental relations between these two domains across this period. This study examined the codevelopment of reading and attention in a community sample of 614 Australian school students (50%…

The fourth-grade 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading assessment shows that 34% of the nation's students perform below the "NAEP Basic" level. However, because there is no achievement-level description for below Basic, educators and policymakers lack information on the nature of the reading difficulties that…

This article provides three major contributions to the literature: we provide granular information on the development of student argumentative writing across secondary school; we replicate the MacArthur et al. model of Natural Language Processing (NLP) writing features that predict quality with a younger group of students; and we are able to…

This longitudinal case study examines reading difficulties identified in Grade 2 and Grade 6 national assessment test (NAT) scores in relation to Grade 9 NAT in Swedish (L1) and English (L2). A norm-referenced screening was used in Grade 2 to assess word reading and reading comprehension. In line with the simple view of reading, four subgroups…

Reading comprehension is the goal of reading, and making inferences is vital. Authors usually expect readers to make multiple types of inferences, including anaphoric, background knowledge, predictive, and retrospective. Common core assessments include all of these, yet instructional materials focus mostly on only one type, retrospective. This…

This study examines the washback effects of a national test in Swedish at upper secondary schools. The test consists of three parts--reading, writing and speaking--and this study specifically focuses on the washback effects in relation to Stephen Ball's theory of policy enactment. The study draws on qualitative data from a total of 21 interviews…

This publication highlights the key concepts and findings of the 2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) study. Oral reading fluency is defined as the ability to read text aloud with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. The NAEP ORF study was administered to a nationally representative sample of over…

According to interpretations of results from the latest oral reading fluency (ORF) study conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (White et al., 2020), fourth-grade students who score below the basic standard require interventions that focus on word recognition, phonological decoding, and fluency. Before such mandates for…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a curriculum based on self-regulated strategy instruction in college developmental writing courses. Prior research that had found large effects on the writing quality for essays without sources was extended to include strategies for critical reading and note-taking, writing summary response…

Readability has long been regarded as a significant aspect in English language teaching as it provides the overall picture of a text's difficulty level, especially in the context of teaching and testing. Readability is a practical consideration when making decisions on materials to match a text with target readers' proficiency. However, few…

Standardized testing is ubiquitous in educational assessment, but questions have been raised about the extent to which these test scores accurately reflect students' genuine knowledge and skills. To more rigorously investigate this issue, the current study employed a within-subject experimental design to examine item format effects on primary…