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 study compared assessment results from five different instruments that require differing amounts of time to administer. These five assessments were developed across multiple decades, each adhering to the philosophies and standards popular at the time they were created. Results suggest a significant overlap in reading proficiency scores across assessments regardless of the primary focus of the assessment, the time it takes to administer the assessment, or time period during which a given assessment was developed.

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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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Research has shown that students’ perceptions about themselves as readers can affect not only overall levels of reading effectiveness, but also the extent to which they engage in reading and use reading as a strategic learning tool. Relatedly, students with high intrinsic motivation are likely to read three times as many minutes per day as compared to those with low intrinsic motivation. The resulting differences in reading experience can amount to millions of words over the course of a single year and contribute to an ever-expanding gap in reading proficiency and academic success.

This study examined relationships between reading motivation and proficiency, and growth in these measures, in a large national sample of students who engaged in Reading Plus during the 2015-16 school year.

Study Design:

This study was based on a national sample of 142,223 elementary, middle, and high school students who completed two InSight assessments during the 2015-16 school year, 92% of whom also completed reading practice lessons in Reading Plus. The InSight assessment was used to measure motivation, with a focus on reading interest and confidence, as well as each student’s reading comprehension level, vocabulary level, and silent reading rate. The latter measures were also combined to yield an overall proficiency score (see InSight Technical Brief for more information)

For the analyses, students were divided into four groups in various ways; i.e., comprising those with increasing levels of reading interest, reading confidence, or those who achieved progressively larger gains in reading proficiency.

Key Results:

All analyses pointed to the same conclusion: Reading proficiency and reading motivation develop together.

Across all grade groups, students who reported higher levels of interest and confidence also demonstrated significantly higher levels of reading comprehension and reading efficiency. Further, increases in interest and confidence over the school year were significantly larger in students who increased their reading proficiency to a greater extent.

Students in all grade groups who engaged in at least 100 practice lessons in Reading Plus achieved significantly larger reading proficiency gains than students who did not complete lessons. Further, the amount of proficiency growth achieved by those who completed lessons was similar regardless of their initial levels of interest or confidence in reading. In other words, Reading Plus can help students become more proficient readers even if their reading motivation is low.

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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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When students must devote much of their attention to the process of reading, e.g., laboriously decoding words and deciphering word meanings, they are likely to have difficulty sustaining the level of attention that reading with good comprehension requires. These students are also likely to miss out on what motivates readers—being entertained, inspired and/or learning from what they read.

This study examined relationships between reading efficiency, reading comprehension, and reading motivation in a large national sample of students who had engaged in Reading Plus during the 2015-16 school year.

Study Design:

Students were divided into reading rate quartile groups based on their reading rate as measured by the InSight assessment, and using reading rate norms established for each grade in a national study of U.S. students (Spichtig et al., 2016). Students’ reading comprehension grade levels and reading motivation were also measured by the InSight assessment (see InSight Technical Brief for more information).

Key Results:

Comprehension grade levels varied significantly across reading rate quartiles. In all grade groups, students in higher quartiles (who read more efficiently) achieved significantly higher comprehension grade levels.

Reading interest also varied significantly across reading rate quartiles. In all grade groups, students who read more efficiently reported significantly higher levels of reading interest.

Reading self-efficacy (i.e. self-perceived reading competence) followed the same pattern as above. In all grade groups, more efficient readers reported higher levels of reading self-efficacy.

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Students with low comprehension, slow silent reading rates, and/or an impoverished vocabulary may not be ready for efficiency building in Reading Plus. Nevertheless, the program includes a wealth of texts that offer these challenged readers the critical practice they need to improve their comprehension, vocabulary, and stamina.

This study looks at how these low-performing students, deemed “Borderline” or “Not Ready,” progressed in Reading Plus during the first two months of the 2013-14 school year. We were especially interested in how the Borderline and Not Ready groups of students advanced when they were exposed to substantial amounts of text on a consistent basis, and how this progress compared to students who were deemed “Ready.”

Study Design:

We tracked the progress of more than 30,000 students in grades 2 through 12 who completed InSight, the Reading Plus reading assessment, and completed 40 or more reading practice lessons (about 10 hours) during the first two months of the school year. Of special interest was growth in comprehension level and efficiency in the Not Ready (n = 1,621), Borderline (n = 6,987), and Ready (n = 21,702) students.

Key Results:

All students increased their comprehension levels, with the largest increases measured in Not Ready and Borderline students (average comprehension gains of 17.8% and 9.6% respectively). All students also increased their reading efficiency, with the largest increases measured in the Borderline and Ready students (average silent reading rate gains of 30 and 44 words per minute respectively).

These encouraging results indicate that even low-performing readers can benefit from Reading Plus practice. Students in all three groups increased capacity to read more complex text efficiently. Further, these gains were made in a short period of time (approximately 10 hours). All this suggests that closing the gap between where students are in their reading development and where they are expected to be (according to Common Core standards) is an achievable goal when they are provided with consistent and well-designed opportunities to read.

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Miami-Dade County Public Schools conducted an independent analysis of interventions used within their district. The analysis examined students in grades 3 through 10 who were at different levels of ability. The analysis was conducted to determine the effectiveness of programs in improving students’ reading and/or math FCAT scores.

The results showed that Reading Plus had a significant positive effect for students of all ability levels and at all grade levels. This report was also conducted for the 2010-2011 school year with nearly identical results, leading Miami-Dade Public Schools to state that Reading Plus was found to have a consistent beneficial impact on the achievement of the students who used the program.

“The application was found to have a consistent beneficial impact on the achievement of the students who used it.”

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The goal of this experiment was to determine whether the use of a particular text presentation format during reading instruction might be more effective in advancing reading development.

Study Design:

Fifth-grade students attending one of two midwestern schools were evaluated in both the fall and spring of the school year using three measures: (a) reading comprehension as measured using the Group Reading Assessment Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE); (b) comprehension-based silent reading efficiency (reading rate, fixations, and regressions) as measured by an eye-movement recording system (Visagraph); and (c) oral reading rate as measured using the Dynamic Indicator of Beginning Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS).

Students matched on their GRADE scores were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups that used different text presentation formats: (a) a Static Display (pages of text with eight lines on each page), (b) a Passage Build-Up format (lines of text added to the page, one at a time), (c) a Line-by-Line Display (single lines of text displayed one at a time), or (d) a Guided Window format (text revealed and concealed by a window moving from left to right). For the three dynamic formats, the text presentation rate was calibrated to the student’s reading rate.

All students then completed about 40 fifteen-minute reading practice lessons (~10 hours) in the Reading Plus program using appropriately leveled text passages and their assigned text presentation format.

Key Results:

Significant improvements in reading comprehension and efficiency were measured in all treatment groups as a result of reading practice, but there were significant differences between groups using different text presentation formats. Consistently, students using the Guided Window text presentation format achieved the largest improvements on all learning outcome measures. The Line-by-Line Display group achieved the smallest comprehension gains, and the Static Display group achieved the smallest reading efficiency gains.

These results suggest that using the Guided Window format during reading practice can enhance the development of reading proficiency to a greater extent than practice using several other text presentation formats, including the traditional static text format. Critically, the resulting enhancements were measurable using three different nationally normed measures of reading proficiency. It seems reasonable to speculate that this outcome is a consequence of the structure and guidance provided by the Guided Window, which provides a focus for visual attention that can help students to maintain their place as they navigate their eyes across lines of text, and encourages students to stay on task, take in words sequentially, and retain word impressions in short-term memory, all characteristics of efficient readers.

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