The Mukilteo (Washington) School District developed an assessment plan to provide reliable feedback on primary students' reading performance, allow documentation of student progress over time, and enlighten parents. Collaborating with the University of Washington, the district decided to employ timed oral reading fluency measures to screen all K-3…

Presents a test of phonological awareness which does not require that subjects speak or hear to participate. Notes that the test was designed to minimize memory loads, and to measure speeded written naming and segmentation-by-sound. Concludes that the data represents the first direct demonstration of phonological abilities in deaf subjects, using…

Discusses the desirability of creating lifelong readers and suggests that the use of formulas to measure the reading levels of books and tests that assign reading levels to students do not help. Offers suggestions for school librarians to encourage reading, including helping students select books through readers' advisory. (LRW)

Considers oral reading fluency as an indicator of overall reading competence. Summarizes several studies substantiating that oral reading fluency may reflect overall reading competence. Provides an historical analysis of the extent to which oral reading fluency has been incorporated into measurement approaches during the past century. Concludes…

Proposes a new measure of individual differences in reading comprehension ability. Components of the task predict performance on a test of global reading comprehension and on a range of specific comprehension tests. Asserts that the task is better at predicting reading comprehension than is a typical working memory span task. (Contains 76…

Discusses research on the National Curriculum Key Stage Two reading tests for years 1998, 1999 and 2000. Shows that in 1999 and 2000 the reading tests were progressively easier: the number of questions requiring higher-order reading skills, particularly those of inference and deduction, decreased each year, while the number of questions requiring…

This study analyzed the factor structure of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests Revised (WRMT-R), a test battery used to measure basic reading skills. Findings indicated that both forms of the WRMT-R contain a large unrotated general factor and, when rotated obliquely, two correlated factors representing basic skills and reading comprehension.…

The Nelson Denny Reading Test (Brown, Fishco & Hanna, 1993) provides measures of comprehension, reading rate and vocabulary. It is widely used in research studies with high school and undergraduate students and for assessment purposes in the USA. No widely used test of this kind exists for adults in the UK. The present paper reports data from 197…

In this series of studies, we investigated the technical adequacy of three curriculum-based measures used as benchmarks and for monitoring progress in three critical reading- related skills: fluency, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. In particular, we examined the following easyCBM measurement across grades 3-7 at fall, winter, and spring…

A quasi-experimental study designed to provide evidence of the effectiveness of the "Jamestown Reading Navigator" ("JRN") program for students in grades 9-10 was conducted in the Miami Dade Public School District (MDCSD). "Jamestown Reading Navigator" is a reading intervention program developed by McGraw-Hill…

The aim of the article is to analyse the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the skills of reading and text-understanding, focusing on the comparative analysis of experiences of meaning in native language, Romanian and English in the case of Hungarian pupils. We attempted to present the qualitative indexes and factors of the process of reading…

Our nation's bleak economic situation has forced state governments to cut educational funding. While funds are decreasing, accountability for student achievement remains high. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) forces each state to create and implement an accountability system of rewards and sanctions based on standardized test scores. In…

In the last 15 years or so, language testing practitioners have increasingly favored assessing vocabulary in context. The discrete-point vocabulary measure used in the old version of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) has long been criticized for encouraging test candidates to memorize wordlists out of context although test items…

Given the increased risk factors in the transition from middle school to high school, this study tracked academic and school discipline records for students receiving general and special education services as they transitioned from Grade 8 to Grade 9. The authors employed analysis of variance and structural equation modeling to determine the…

A number of criticisms have been made of currently available standardized pre-reading test materials in terms of their appropriateness for administration to urban children, their standardization, their content, and their required testing procedures. This new pre-reading skills battery has been designed as an urban oriented testing instrument to…