Educators use reading comprehension assessments to summarize academic achievement, make decisions in diagnostic evaluations, and identify intervention needs. A challenge, however, with using different assessments in practice is that student performance may change depending on which assessment is administered. This article guides educators in…

Background: Previous studies used curriculum-based measurement (CBM) maze scores as an indicator of the reading comprehension level of secondary school students with and without special educational needs in multiple grades, pinpointing a high influence of both student- and context-related variables. However, studies on cumulative influence are…

Presenting major advances in understanding learning disabilities (LDs) and describing effective educational practices, this authoritative volume has been significantly revised and expanded with more than 70% new material. Foremost LD experts identify effective principles of assessment and instruction within the framework of multi-tiered systems of…

Dyslexia and other learning disabilities are not being properly recognized and treated in our educational system or society at large. Unrecognized and untreated learning disabilities represent a serious social and economic problem, not only to the individual but to society as a whole. For example, antisocial behavior, as seen in prison populations…

The purpose of this study was to compare the long-term effects of 2 first-grade Response to Intervention (RTI) models (Dynamic and Typical RTI) on the reading performance of students in second and third grade. Participants included 419 first-grade students (352 in second grade and 278 in third grade after attrition). Students were classified based…

The body of peer-tutoring intervention research targeting higher order learning (HOL) objectives for middle and high school students with disabilities is reviewed. Peer-tutoring outcomes are synthesized and studies are analyzed to examine the influence of tutoring procedures and study design features on intervention efficacy. Findings show that…

When students experience reading difficulties--or even before they do--teachers can use specialized knowledge to help them achieve success. This overview of the International Dyslexia Association's "Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading" describes those reading and literacy standards and provides resources for teacher…

We describe findings from a series of longitudinal studies utilizing a response to intervention framework implemented over 3 years with students in Grades 6 through 8 with reading disabilities and poor reading comprehension. Students were identified based on reading comprehension scores in Grade 5 (n = 1,083) and then randomized to treatment or…

The purpose of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of learning disabled young adults who struggle with low literacy skills in order to learn more about their literacy profiles and, from an emic perspective, understand the affective factors that may have influenced their attendance and persistence in a post-secondary residential…

Reading comprehension is a crucial skill for academic success of all students. Very often, students with learning disabilities struggle with reading skills and since students learn new information in school by reading; these difficulties often increase the academic struggles students with learning disabilities face. The current study examined…

Multiple studies have shown that kindergarten measures of phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge are good predictors of reading achievement in the primary grades. However, less attention has been given to the early predictors of later reading achievement. This study used a modified best-subsets variable-selection technique to examine…

In this study, we investigated the impact of a student-reads-aloud accommodation on the performance of middle school and high school students with and without learning disabilities (LD) on a test of reading comprehension. Data for the analyses came from 311 students (n = 230 with LD) who took alternate forms of a reading test in a standard and an…

Multipass, a learning strategy derived from the SQ3R study technique was taught to eight learning disabled adolescents. Results show that a specific instructional methodology can be effectively used to teach a complex learning strategy to learning disabled adolescents. (Author)

Assessment of 15 students with learning disabilities (ages 9-13) found that their ability to answer comprehension and synthesis questions was poorer than that of their peers, but their ability to answer knowledge, analysis, and application questions was commensurate with age peers. Findings suggest that individual assessment of levels of…

Discussed is an oral reading procedure for children with reading problems which assesses a reader's competency through an analysis of comprehension evidenced by meaningful versus non-meaningful alterations to the reading text. It is explained that this analysis indicates that the poor reader's needs frequently may be at the syntactic and semantic…