Abstract

“This study examined silent reading rates (SRRs) in relation to students’ estimated academic vocabulary grade levels (EVGLs) and comprehension accuracy (Comprehension Items Correct; compIC). Analyses were based on data from 288,934 students in grades 2-12 who completed an adaptive silent reading assessment that yielded measures of the three variables of interest. Silent reading rate was measured while students read five 150- to 300-word passages. Each student’s initial passage difficulty was aligned with their EVGL. Each passage was followed by five comprehension questions, such that in total, students could answer up to 25 comprehension items correctly. Two-level Multilevel Models (MLMs) were fitted to evaluate SRR in relation to EVGL, compIC, and their interactions. The final MLM included the random intercept and three random slopes for the two level-1 predictors (school-mean-centered EVGL as the focal predictor and school-mean-centered compIC as the moderator) and their interactions. Results indicated that: (a) the fixed effect of higher EVGL on SRR was positive and significant, (b) the fixed effect of higher compIC on SRR was negative and significant, and (c) there was a significant interaction indicating that the relationship between school-mean-centered EVGL and SRR grew stronger as school-mean-centered compIC increased. These results suggest that vocabulary knowledge and SRR increase in concert among students with good comprehension, whereas SRRs measured in the absence of good comprehension are less meaningful and may indicate inadequate skills or insufficient motivation to fully comprehend what is being read.”

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Valid and reliable assessments of reading proficiency are essential to educators’ ability to make informed instructional decisions. This study evaluated the results of InSight, a web-based, adaptive reading assessment, in relation to the Smarter Balanced (SBAC) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) English Language Arts (ELA) assessments used in eighteen US states and other geopolitical entities during the 2018-19 school year. InSight can be administered in a group or individualized setting with minimal teacher oversight. Students typically need 30-40 minutes to complete the assessment and the results are immediately available. SBAC and PARCC ELA assessments require more oversight and time to administer, usually 3-4 hours, and results are provided within a few weeks to a few months after administration.

InSight showed strong concurrent validity (Pearson’s r >.70) and classification accuracy (lower bound of the Area Under the Curve (AUC) confidence interval > .80 and overall classification accuracy rate >75%) with the SBAC and PARCC ELA assessments in each grade measured (3-8) and overall.

“The ability for a short reading assessment (InSIght) to accurately classify students’ reading/ELA proficiency in comparison to widely-used assessments used for high-stakes accountability is critical for many instructional decisions such as tiered interventions for at-risk students.”

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Less efficient readers achieved larger reading efficiency growth. More efficient readers achieved larger reading achievement gains.

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This research evaluated the relationship between eye movement measures of reading efficiency and students’ orthographic knowledge. A strong relationship was found between these measures.

All eye movement measures differed significantly across the stages of spelling/literacy development, with the later stages being associated with faster reading rates, fewer fixations and regressions per word, and shorter fixation durations (p < .001).

These results demonstrate a strong relationship between orthographic knowledge and reading efficiency as measured by comprehension-based silent reading rate and eye movement behavior during reading. While the reciprocal relationship between orthographic knowledge and reading development is well established, this is the first known demonstration of the relationship between orthographic knowledge, comprehension-based reading rate, and oculomotor efficiency across multiple stages of spelling/literacy development.

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This research evaluated the impact of scaffolded silent reading practice (SSRP) in comparison to “business as usual” instruction.

The results suggest that SSRP may be more effective than typical practices in helping students become more proficient and efficient readers. Students who engaged in SSRP achieved larger reading efficiency gains as measured by greater increases in reading rate and larger decreases in fixations and regressions over the course of a school year. In addition, larger reading proficiency gains were achieved on the Group Reading Assessment Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE) by students who engaged in SSRP. The results are encouraging in that they suggest that SSRP can, at the very least, be an efficacious addition to educators’ instructional toolboxes.

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The present study measured the comprehension-based silent reading efficiency of U.S. students in grades 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. Students read standardized grade-level passages while an eye movement recording system was used to measure reading rate, fixations (eye stops) per word, fixation durations, and regressions (right-to-left eye movements) per word. Eye movement recordings were regarded as valid only if students demonstrated a comprehension level of at least 70% after reading a passage and answering a series of true/false questions. Reading rates increased over grades, with two exceptions: (a) between grades 6 and 8, growth in reading rate appeared to plateau; and (b) between grades 10 and 12, reading rate increases were seen only among students in the upper two quartiles. Changes in the other three efficiency measures reflected similar patterns of reading efficiency development over grades. The reading efficiency of students in this study was also compared with that of a sample of students from 1960, using norms reported by Taylor (1965) and validated by Carver (1989). Comprehension-based silent reading rates in grade 2 were comparable across the 50-year span, but the cross-grade growth trajectory was much shallower in the present study than it was in 1960. These results suggest that present-day students may not achieve the same level of word-reading automaticity as did their 1960 counterparts.

“The present research adds to an ample body of evidence suggesting that the reading proficiency of students in the U.S. is declining. The majority of our high school graduates lack adequate reading proficiency and have little experience with the sorts of challenging text they will face in postsecondary educational settings.”

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The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of a supplementary, guided, silent reading intervention with 80 struggling third-grade readers who were retained at grade level as a result of poor performance on the reading portion of a criterion referenced state assessment. The students were distributed in 11 elementary schools in a large, urban school district in the state of Florida. A matched, quasi-experimental design was constructed using propensity scores for this study.

Students in the guided, silent reading intervention, Reading Plus, evidenced higher, statistically significant mean scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) criterion assessment measure of reading at posttest. The effect size, favoring the guided, silent reading intervention group was large, one full standard deviation, when comparing the two comparison groups’ mean posttest scores. As such, this study indicates a large advantage for providing struggling third-grade readers guided silent reading fluency practice in a computer-based practice environment.

“Students in the guided, silent reading intervention, Reading Plus, evidenced higher, statistically significant mean scores on the criterion assessment measure of reading at posttest.”

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This paper reviews research on the development of silent reading habits and examines instructional practices that can lead to good reading efficiency and strong comprehension. The authors argue that what can be accomplished in digital contexts, such as instantaneously adjusting scaffolds and text difficulty in response to student performance, allows for “precision in scaffolding that is difficult to achieve in a classroom setting or even a tutoring one.”

“The fact that the yearlong gains made by the primarily low achieving students in this silent reading intervention were substantially larger than the mean overall gains at the state and district levels is noteworthy.”

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The study examined a large-scale implementation of Reading Plus to validate the effects as well as the feasibility of deployment of Reading Plus within a wide range of school settings. A total of 16,143 students from grades 4 through 10 in 23 schools in Regions II and III in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools participated in the study.

Results indicated that students participating in Reading Plus for a minimum of 40 or more lessons over approximately six months made significantly greater gains on both the criterion-referenced and norm-referenced reading tests that are part of the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) than students who did not participate in the program. Positive results also were demonstrated for various subpopulations often considered at risk for reading difficulties. African-American, Latino-American, special education, and learning disabled students who participated in the Reading Plus intervention demonstrated significantly and substantially greater gains in measures of reading achievement on both the CRT and NRT portions of the FCAT than students not participating in the intervention.

“Results indicated that students participating in Reading Plus for a minimum of 40 or more lessons over approximately six months made significantly greater gains than students who did not participate in the program.”

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