Roland H. Good

The Importance and Decision-Making Utility of a Continuum of Fluency-Based Indicators of Foundational Reading Skills for Third-Grade High-Stakes Outcomes

Educational accountability and its counterpart, high-stakes assessment, are at the forefront of the educational agenda in this era of standards-based reform. In this article, we examine assessment and accountability in the context of a prevention-oriented assessment and intervention system designed to assess early reading progress formatively. Specifically, we explore the utility of a continuum of fluency-based indicators of foundational early literacy skills to predict reading outcomes, to inform educational decisions, and to change reading outcomes for students at risk of reading difficulty. First, we address the accountability era, discuss the promise of prevention-oriented assessment, and outline a continuum of fluency-based indicators of foundational reading skills using Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills and Curriculum-Based Measurement Oral Reading Fluency. Next, we describe a series of linked, short-term, longitudinal studies of 4 cohorts examining the utility and predictive validity of the measures from kindergarten through 3rd grade with the Oregon Statewide Assessment-Reading/Literature as a high-stakes reading outcome. Using direct measures of key foundational skills, predictive validities ranged from. 34 to. 82. The utility of the fluency-based benchmark goals was supported with the finding that 96% of children who met the 3rd-grade oral reading fluency benchmark goal met or exceeded expectations on the Oregon Statewide Assessment, a high-stakes outcome measure. We illustrate the utility of the measures for evaluating instruction, modifying the instructional system, and targeting children who need additional instructional support to achieve benchmark goals. Finally, we discuss the instructional and policy implications of our findings and their utility in an active educational accountability environment.

The Adequacy of Tools for Assessing Reading Competence: A Framework and Review

Assessment of student performance is critical for developing effective instructional policy and designing programs responsive to individual students’ needs. To gauge the adequacy of available assessment tools for achieving these ends, the Reading First Assessment Committee (RFAC) developed criteria for evaluating the adequacy of reading measures for use in kindergarten through Grade 3 and applied those criteria to a sample of prominently used assessments (Kame’enui et al., 2002). The authors describe the RFAC’s framework, outline its process for judging the technical merits of reading measures, and comment on the current state of assessment tools available to practitioners for supporting effective reading instruction in the primary grades.

General Growth Outcomes for Young Children: Developing a Foundation for Continuous Progress Measurement

Public expectations of accountability in our education system have increasingly focused on young childrens development, in part because of Goal 1 of the National Education Goals (By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn). Few sensitive measurement systems have been developed, however, to monitor young childrens growth over time. Building such a system requires a parsimonious but comprehensive set of developmental outcomes expected of children between birth and age 8. In the two studies presented here, investigators formulated a set of 15 general growth outcomes for young children, and conducted a survey of parents of children with and without disabilities and professionals in early childhood and early elementary education to validate the outcomes.

The Effects of Reintegration into General Education Reading Instruction for Students with Mild Disabilities

This study reports results of reintegrating 23 elementary-age students with mild disabilities served in special education pull-out programs into their general education classroom for reading instruction. These students were placed into general education classrooms for reading for up to 12 weeks. Effects were evaluated using Curriculum-Based Measurement. Achievement gains for reintegrated students were evaluated in the context of the academic gains made by general education students in the same reading groups. Results showed that on average, reintegrated students made academic gains comparable with their general education counterparts. Parents and general education teachers responded favorably to the reintegration decision, and their support did not change over the course of the reintegration trial. Implications for reintegration efforts are discussed.

Prevention of substance abuse with rural head Start children and families: Results of project STAR

The effectiveness of a comprehensive intervention with preschool children aimed at reducing the risk of later substance abuse was examined. The intervention targeted risk factors during the preschool years linked to later substance use in adolescence and adulthood. Head Start classrooms were randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group. A classroom-based curriculum was delivered by Head Start teachers who received a number of training workshops and continued consultation. Parent training and home visits were also provided to intervention families. Positive parenting as well as parent-school involvement increased over the 1st year of intervention. Intervention families maintained the positive effects on parenting into the kindergarten year over a matched control group; however, effects on school bonding were not maintained. Improvements in social competence, reported by teachers and parents, were found at the end of kindergarten. No changes were found for self-regulation.

Making Sense of Nonsense Word Fluency: Determining Adequate Progress in Early First-Grade Reading.

In this article, we examine the contribution of initial skill and slope of progress on alphabetic principle to end of first-grade reading outcomes. Initial skill and slope were measured using DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency. Reading outcomes were measured at the end of first grade with DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency. Students in Oregon Reading First schools (n = 2,172) and students participating in the DIBELS Data System (n = 358,032), with complete data during the 2004–2005 academic year, were participants. Slope of progress through the first semester of first grade on NWF was a strong predictor of first-grade reading outcomes, especially for students at risk of reading difficulty.

Assessing Phonemic Awareness in Preschool and Kindergarten: Development and Initial Validation of First Sound Fluency

This article presents initial findings from a study examining First Sound Fluency (FSF), which is a brief measure of early phonemic awareness (PA) skills. Students in prekindergarten and kindergarten (preK and K) were assessed three times (fall, winter, and spring) over one school year, which resulted in multiple reliability and validity coefficients. In addition, a subset of students in both preK and K was assessed monthly between benchmark periods using alternate forms of the FSF measure to estimate delayed alternate-form reliability. The FSF measure displayed adequate reliability and validity for decision making in early literacy for students in both grades. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The Preschool Early Literacy Indicators: Validity and Benchmark Goals.

Assessment is at the center of a decision-making model within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. Assessments that can be used for universal screening and progress monitoring in early childhood RTI models are needed that are both psychometrically sound and appropriate to meet developmental needs of young children. The Preschool Early Literacy Indicators (PELI), an assessment tool developed for screening and for progress monitoring, was designed to incorporate psychometrically sound assessment practices within an authentic assessment format. The current study provides data on concurrent and predictive validity of the PELI as well as analyses leading to the development of preliminary benchmark goals on the PELI. The PELI demonstrates significant differences in performance by age and growth in early literacy and language skills across the preschool years. Correlations between the PELI and criterion measures of similar skills are moderate to strong and predictive probabilities with respect to outcome measures are moderate to strong.

Schools engaged in school-wide reading reform: an examination of the school and individual student predictors of kindergarten early reading outcomes

This study examined the school and student predictors of early reading outcomes for kindergarten students enrolled in schools that participated in a beginning reading reform program. The study employed a nested design with students nested within schools and applied hierarchical linear modeling analyses to account for the organizational structure of the dataset. Fifty-seven schools were selected from all of the Hawaiian Islands to participate in the Institute on Beginning Reading (IBR), a research-based model of school-wide reading improvement. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the existence and magnitude of school effects on student early reading outcomes for schools engaged in a beginning reading reform model. Subjects were 3,652 Kindergarteners nested within 57 schools across the Hawaiian Islands. Results indicate that there were both significant and meaningful differences between schools on kindergarten early reading outcomes.

Decreasing Reading Differences in Children from Disadvantaged Backgrounds: The Effects of an Early Literacy Intervention

Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds (SES) are at increased risk of reading problems. Although phonological awareness consistently emerges as a critical literacy skill for children, little research exists regarding the effects of the acquisition of phonological awareness skills on decreasing the reading achievement gap between children of different SES levels. In this study, 50 first graders from low SES backgrounds were randomly assigned to receivelO weeks of phonological awareness intervention or a control condition. In addition, 25 first graders from middle-high SES backgrounds served as a comparison group. A significant difference in phonological awareness skills was found between children in the low SES intervention group who received the phonological awareness intervention and similar children in the control group who did not receive the intervention. Reading skill differences between the low SES intervention and control groups were found at follow-up 24 weeks later but not immediately following intervention. Although the gap in reading skills of children from the low SES intervention group and the middle-high SES comparison group decreased, reading differences remained. Implications of findings with regard to prevention and identification of children at-risk for reading difficulties, as well as planning and implementing early literacy intervention for children from disadvantaged backgrounds are provided.