Measuring Reading Progress in Second Grade

Learning progress assessments (LPA) are increasingly used by teachers to inform instructional decisions. This study presents evidence for the reliability, validity, and measurement invariance of a newly developed LPA for reading in Grade 2 (quop-L2 – quop Lesetest für zweite Klassen) that assesses the development of reading comprehension in German at the word, sentence, and text levels based on short, equivalent computer-based tests at three-week intervals. All tests were sufficiently reliable. The proposed three-dimensional structure was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis based on data from N = 1,913 second-grade students. In a subsample of n = 354 students, correlations between quop-L2 and a standardized reading test, teacher judgments, measures of intelligence, and mathematics provided evidence for quop-L2’s convergent and discriminant validity. The equivalent tests were strictly invariant over time. Most importantly, results of structural equation models showed that progress in the quop-L2 assessment at the sentence and text levels was related to growth in standardized reading tests assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. Thus, results indicate that quop-L2 can reliably and validly assess students’ actual reading performance and progress.

A Phase 2 Exploratory Trial of a Vocabulary Intervention in High Poverty Elementary Education Settings

This article reports results of a phase 2 exploratory trial of a vocabulary program delivered in elementary schools to improve student’s reading ability, including their comprehension. The intervention was tested as a targeted intervention in classrooms with children aged 7–10 across 20 weeks during one school year, with eligible students learning in small groups of four. Teachers and support staff received training in this cooperative learning approach to develop children’s vocabulary with particular focus on Tier‐2 words. School staff received additional support and resources to equip them to develop and implement the vocabulary instruction sessions to targeted students. The trial was undertaken with a sample of 101 students in seven schools from three English district areas with high levels of socio‐economic disadvantage. A standardized reading test was used to measure reading outcomes, with significant gains found in student’s overall reading ability, including comprehension. Owing to the positive results found in this trial, including positive feedback about implementation of the technique, next steps should be a larger trial with 48 schools to avoid the risk of sampling error due to limited number of schools.

Boys-Specific Text-Comprehension Enhancement With Dual Visual-Auditory Text Presentation Among 12–14 Years-Old Students

Quality of language comprehension determines performance in all kinds of activities including academics. Processing of words initially develops as auditory, and gradually extends to visual as children learn to read. School failure is highly related to listening and reading comprehension problems. In this study we analyzed sex-differences in comprehension of texts in Spanish (standardized reading test PROLEC-R) in three modalities (visual, auditory, and both simultaneously: dual-modality) presented to 12–14-years old students, native in Spanish. We controlled relevant cognitive variables such as attention (d2), phonological and semantic fluency (FAS) and speed of processing (WISC subtest Coding). Girls’ comprehension was similar in the three modalities of presentation, however boys were importantly benefited by dual-modality as compared to boys exposed only to visual or auditory text presentation. With respect to the relation of text comprehension and school performance, students with low grades in Spanish showed low auditory comprehension. Interestingly, visual and dual modalities preserved comprehension levels in these low skilled students. Our results suggest that the use of visual-text support during auditory language presentation could be beneficial for low school performance students, especially boys, and encourage future research to evaluate the implementation in classes of the rapidly developing technology of simultaneous speech transcription, that could be, in addition, beneficial to non-native students, especially those recently incorporated into school or newly arrived in a country from abroad.

Reading Related Activities in Second Grade and Their Effect on Fluency- An Evaluation of Teachers’ Classroom Practices

There is a large number of scientifically evaluated reading trainings recommended by literature, that have shown to be effective on the process level. However, field studies indicate that teachers rarely adopt those but use reading animation methods and self-invented methods instead. Yet, scientific evidence for those teacher-constructed methods is still missing. We therefore asked 87 teachers about their reading lessons and assessed the reading ability development of their 1469 students with a standardized reading test. The results show that teachers hardly use any evidence-based methods, but mainly rely on reading animation. Further, the methods reported by the teachers did not show a measurable impact on the development of the students’ reading competence. On the contrary, teacher constructed methods seemingly lead to a growth of heterogeneity of competence.

An investigation of blended learning to support reading instruction in elementary schools

Research is needed to address the possible benefits of blended learning as a form of reading instruction in elementary schools. Blended learning combines teacher-led instruction with digital technology. We had an opportunity to evaluate the effects of blended learning for students in kindergarten through fifth grade within a charter school network. Administrators in three schools chose to adopt a blended learning program during the 2016–2017 school year. There were 2217 students in the treatment schools. Treatment students were compared to 1504 students in three control schools where the standard form of instruction was maintained. Prior to implementation of blended learning, treatment students performed significantly below control students on a standardized reading test. At the end of the school year, treatment students showed greater gains on the reading test than control students and group differences disappeared. Further analyses revealed that reading gains were uniform across grades and ethnic categories. These outcomes point to the viability of using blended learning for reading instruction in elementary schools.

Texas–Mexico Border vs. Non-Border School Districts’ Growth Trajectory of High-Stakes Reading Performance: A Multi-Level Approach

This study focuses on comparing the growth trajectory of border and non-border school districts regarding their fifth-grade students’ performance on a standardized reading test. Using a growth hierarchical linear model, we investigated the effect of time, school location, and their interaction on students’ reading performance through the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading test in five recent school years. It was found that border school students lagged behind in reading at the initial stage when STAAR was first administered. As time went by, the gap between border and non-border district students’ reading performance remained. Implications for teaching pedagogy and research are discussed regarding the preparation of border district students to become bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate.

Does Extra Interletter Spacing Help Text Reading in Skilled Adult Readers?

A number of experiments have shown that, in skilled adult readers, a small increase in interletter spacing speeds up the process of visual word recognition relative to the default settings (i.e., judge faster than judge). The goal of the present experiment was to examine whether this effect can be generalized to a more ecological scenario: text reading. Each participant read two stories (367 words each) taken from a standardized reading test. The stories were presented with the standard interletter spacing or with a small increase in interletter spacing (+1.2 points to default) in a within-subject design. An eyetracker was used to register the participants’ eye movements. Comprehension scores were also examined. Results showed that, on average, fixation durations were shorter while reading the text with extra spacing than while reading the text with the default settings (237 vs. 245 ms, respectively; η2 =. 41, p = .01). However, the number of fixations (while nonsignificant) was slightly higher in the text with extra spacing than in the text with the default spacing, and cancelled out the effect of interletter spacing in total reading times (F < 1). Comprehension scores were similar in the two spacing conditions (F < 1). Thus, at least for skilled adult readers, interletter spacing does not seem to play a consistently facilitative role during text reading.

The ontogeny of visual–motor memory and its importance in handwriting and reading: a developing construct

Humans have evolved a remarkable ability to remember visual shapes and use these representations to generate motor activity (from Palaeolithic cave drawings through Jiahu symbols to cursive handwriting). The term visual–motor memory (VMM) describes this psychological ability, which must have conveyed an evolutionary advantage and remains critically important to humans (e.g. when learning to write). Surprisingly, little empirical investigation of this unique human ability exists—almost certainly because of the technological difficulties involved in measuring VMM. We deployed a novel technique for measuring this construct in 87 children (6–11 years old, 44 females). Children drew novel shapes presented briefly on a tablet laptop screen, drawing their responses from memory on the screen using a digitizer stylus. Sophisticated algorithms (using point-registration techniques) objectively quantified the accuracy of the children's reproductions. VMM improved with age and performance decreased with shape complexity, indicating that the measure captured meaningful developmental changes. The relationship between VMM and scores on nationally standardized writing assessments were explored with the results showing a clear relationship between these measures, even after controlling for age. Moreover, a relationship between VMM and the nationally standardized reading test was mediated via writing ability, suggesting VMM's wider importance within language development.