Michael D. Hixson

The Relationship between Race, Income, and Oral Reading Fluency and Performance on Two Reading Comprehension Measures

Oral reading fluency is a good predictor of performance on state reading assessments. The present study addressed the issue of bias by examining whether oral reading fluency scores differentially predict performance on a state reading assessment and the Metropolitan Achievement Tests, 7th Edition (MAT/7) across economic and racial groups. Information from 442 fourth-grade students from a Midwest public school was analyzed using multiple linear regression. All three variables made a significant contribution to predicting performance on the state assessment and the MAT/7. Oral reading fluency made the greatest contribution. The results also indicate that the oral reading fluency scores exhibit intercept bias on the state reading test. A stepwise regression procedure found no evidence of bias. On both the state reading test and the MAT/7, the test scores of African American and low-income students were overpredicted, whereas those of Caucasian and higher-income students were underpredicted.

Behavioral Cusps, Basic Behavioral Repertoires, and Cumulative-Hierarchical Learning

Much behavior development is cumulative and hierarchical in that subsequent learning is dependent on prior learning. The behavior or behavioral changes that produce subsequent important behavioral changes are referred to as basic behavioral repertoires or behavioral cusps. This progression of learning is called “cumulative-hierarchical learning,” and it may be an important concept for understanding much complex human behavior. Despite its potential importance, there has been little systematic study of the concept within behavior analysis or psychology in general, which limits our understanding of complex human behavior. One reason for the lack of research may be the difficulty in studying cumulative-hierarchical learning and identifying behavioral cusps. Methods to study cumulativehierarchical learning are described.

Autism as a Contingency-Shaped Disorder of Verbal Behavior: Evidence Obtained and Evidence Needed

Drash and Tudor’s argument that autism is a contingency-shaped disorder of verbal behavior is logical and consistent with behavioral principles, but the argument’s premises have no direct empirical support and some conflicting evidence. The quantity and quality of research needed to support such a theory is compared to that found in the area of antisocial behavior in children, which has considerable evidence for a contingency-shaped etiology. Even if autism is largely inherited, this does not weaken the necessity or importance of behavioral intervention. Drash and Tudor’s paper may serve a useful function by outlining areas in need of further study because a great deal more research is needed on how the early environment shapes the language, cognitive, and behavioral development of children.

Beyond sight words: Reading programs for people with intellectual disabilities.

The Edmark Reading Program (ERP; Tague, Kidder, & Bijou, 1967; Pro-Ed, 2011) was the first reading program specifically designed for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The program effectively teaches sight-word reading using a programmed-instruction approach; however, the decoding skills taught in the program are limited. Because phonics and phonemic awareness instruction are missing from the ERP, students fail to learn a generalizable reading repertoire. Recently, there have been a few select programs developed that have successfully taught intellectually disabled people a generalizable reading repertoire. These programs are briefly reviewed.

Reliability and Validity of Advanced Phonics Measures.

Two studies explored the technical adequacy of various measures of advanced phonics skills. In Study 1, the advanced phonics measures consisted of pseudowords, real words, or a combination of both. Participants included 39 students in the third grade. Test–retest correlations for all measures were above .8 and interrater reliability was high. Correlations between the three advanced phonics measures and two subtests from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–Second Edition (WIAT-II) and Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), nonsense word fluency (NWF), and oral reading fluency (ORF) were moderate to moderately strong. The measures containing real words or a combination of pseudowords and real words performed best. The real word and combined pseudoword and real word advanced phonics measures were further studied along with a measure of multisyllabic word reading in Study 2 with 162 second and third graders. The advanced phonics measures were strongly correlated with Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE) scores. In both studies, regression analyses indicated the probe containing a mix of real and pseudowords was one of the few variables that made a significant prediction to criterion measures of phonics skills when all predictors were entered at once.