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Evidence-based assessment (EBA) requires that investigators employ scientific theories and research findings to guide decisions about what domains to measure, how and when to measure them, and how to make decisions and interpret results. To implement EBA, investigators need high-quality assessment tools along with evidence-based processes. We advance EBA in three sections in this article. First, we describe an empirically grounded framework, the Operations Triad Model (OTM), to inform EBA decision-making in the articulation of relevant educational theory. Originally designed for interpreting mental health assessments, we describe features of the OTM that facilitate its fusion with educational theory, namely its falsifiability. In turn, we cite evidence to support the OTM's ability to inform hypothesis generation and testing, study design, instrument selection, and measurement validation. Second, we describe quality indicators for interpreting psychometric data about measurement tools, which informs both the development and selection of measures and the process of measurement validation. Third, we apply the OTM and EBA to research in special education in two contexts: (a) empirical research for causal explanation and (b) implementation science research. We provide open data resources to advance measurement validation and conclude with future directions for research.

In co-taught classes, general education and special education teachers can improve the content-area learning and literacy skills of students with learning disabilities by helping them read texts effectively. Co-teachers can improve comprehension by providing students with background and vocabulary knowledge before reading. In this article, a routine for introducing background (world) and vocabulary (word) knowledge--the world knowledge and word knowledge routine (world and word)--is described. The article includes explanations how each part of the routine works and uses an example to illustrate how co-teachers could use the routine to promote student reading comprehension.

It is essential that middle school content-area and special education co-teachers adopt evidence-based literacy practices that they can integrate into their content-area instruction to address the needs of all of the students in their classes. This article provides co-teachers with four planning tips to improve implementation of the practices they adopt. The planning tips are organized using the acronym FIRST: (a) monitor Fidelity of implementation of the adopted practices, (b) Integrate the practices into daily content-area instruction and across the year, (c) determine the Roles of each co-teacher when planning for and implementing instruction in the adopted practices, and (d) consider specific guidelines to Select Texts for each literacy-focused lesson. The planning tips are illustrated using examples related to the content-area literacy instruction (CALI) instructional framework, which is a set of evidence-based literacy practices and procedures designed to improve the literacy instruction middle school coteachers implement in their content-area classes.

The Project CALI (Content Area Literacy Instruction) instructional framework is designed to enhance reading comprehension for all students, those with disabilities as well as their typically developing peers, in inclusive co-taught middle school content-area classrooms. For students with and at-risk for disabilities, even well-designed, research-based, and whole-class instruction often leads to inadequate improvement in reading comprehension and thus learning of content material. In CALI, teachers use student data to determine which students need more support and targeted, individualized instruction, and by contrast, which students may benefit from opportunities to extend their learning with more challenging texts and student-managed work. This article provides guidance for designing and implementing customizable lessons using station-teaching to individualize instruction. The Project CALI student support model is the final instructional piece of the CALI instructional framework.

Researchers disagree about the value of controlling the decodability of texts for students with reading difficulty, specifically what type of text they should read: "decodable texts" (words limited to taught patterns), "nondecodable" texts (those not limited by instruction), or "both." We analyzed the effects of reading intervention for elementary-age students with reading difficulty (k = 119) to determine whether effects varied by the type of texts students read--decodable, nondecodable, or both--compared with interventions without text reading. Inadequate information was available to code text type for 22 interventions including text reading; effect sizes were calculated for 97 studies. Effects for interventions with decodable or nondecodable reading did not differ from no-text interventions. For both types of interventions, the effect (g = 0.28) approached significance versus no-text, 95% CI [-0.09, 0.65]. Disaggregating effects by whether the measures were standardized or researcher-designed showed a significant both-types effect, g = 0.45, 95% CI [0.02, 0.89] relative to no-text. Disaggregating by whether outcomes were for word recognition or reading comprehension showed a positive both-types effect for word recognition outcomes; data were inadequate to examine comprehension. A possible confounding effect of time spent reading was tested but was uncorrelated with the intervention effect. The both-types finding suggests the possible value of varied reading experiences in intervention, but this analysis did not account for other factors that might be correlated with text type and the intervention effect. Furthermore, more comprehensive reporting about text types is important for replication and meta-analytic review.

One way to provide intensive intervention for students with severe and persistent reading difficulties is to use a systematic data-based decision-making process called data-based individualisation (DBI). DBI is a process for identifying needs and aligning them with specialist support. Meta-analyses of DBI studies by university-based researchers have shown positive effects, but university research studies do not involve many of the implementation science-related factors that affect success. This study addresses the dearth of data from practice-based studies that incorporate DBI and was done as a researcher-practitioner collaboration, developed with based on the theory that the collaborators' combined knowledge and skills could produce positive outcomes. Mixed methods were used to examine whether there was evidence of success in implementation DBI conducted through a researcher-practitioner partnership in New York City Public Schools, the largest public school system in the United States. Specifically, data were collected concerning the quality of DBI implementation and changes in teachers' and administrators' perspectives about the value of implementing intensive intervention. Results indicated that district-level implementation met many criteria for effective DBI, that school teams (N = 6) implemented DBI with an overall high level of fidelity (mean score of 4.1 on a 5-point scale) and that teachers and school administrators changed their thinking about intensive intervention as a result of participation in DBI. Stakeholder interview data indicated a high level of social acceptability for DBI implementation. Features of the research-practice partnership thought to have contributed to the success of the project are discussed.

Set for variability (SfV) is an oral language task that requires an individual to disambiguate the mismatch between the decoded form of an irregular word and its actual lexical pronunciation. For example, in the task, the word wasp is pronounced to rhyme with clasp (i.e. /waesp/), and the individual must recognize the actual pronunciation of the word to be /w[alpha]sp/. SfV has been shown to be a significant predictor of both item-specific and general word reading variance above and beyond that associated with phonemic awareness skill, letter-sound knowledge, and vocabulary skill. However, very little is known about the child characteristics and word features that affect SfV item performance. In this study, we explored whether word features and child characteristics that involve phonology only are adequate to explain item-level variance in SfV performance or whether including predictors that involve the connection between phonology and orthography explains additional variance. To accomplish this, we administered the SfV task (N = 75 items) to a sample of grade 2-5 children (N = 489), along with a battery of reading, reading related, and language measures. Results suggest that variance in SfV performance is uniquely accounted for by measures tapping phonological skill along with those capturing knowledge of phonology to orthography associations, but more so in children with better decoding skill. Additionally, word reading skill was found to moderate the influence of other predictors suggesting that how the task is approached may be impacted by word reading and decoding ability.

Statistical views of reading highlight the link between proficient literacy and the assimilation of various regularities embedded in writing systems, including those in the mapping between print and meaning. Still, orthographic-semantic (O-S) regularities remain relatively understudied, with open questions regarding 3 issues: (a) how O-S regularities should be quantified, (b) how they impact the behavior of proficient readers, and (c) whether individual differences in sensitivity to these regularities predict reading skills. The goal of the current article is to address these questions. We start by reviewing previous studies estimating print-meaning regularities, where orthography-to-semantics consistency (OSC) is defined as the mean semantic similarity between a word and its orthographic neighbors. While we adopt this general strategy, we identify a potential confound in previous operational definitions. We therefore offer a modified measure, which we use to examine group-level OSC effects in available data sets of single word recognition and reading for comprehension. Our findings validate the existence of OSC effects but reveal variation across tasks, with OSC effects emerging more strongly in tasks involving a direct mapping of print to meaning. Next, we present a reanalysis of word naming data from 399 second through fifth graders, where we examine individual differences in reliance on O-S regularities and their relation to participants' reading skills. We show that early readers whose naming accuracy is more influenced by OSC (i.e., those who rely more on O-S) have better passage comprehension abilities. We conclude by discussing the role of O-S regularities in proficient reading and literacy acquisition.

Secondary school administrators increasingly include students with disabilities in general education classrooms with coteaching models. Theoretically, coteaching enables two educators to attend to the learning needs of students with disabilities while exposing them to grade-level content area instruction. However, our study on teachers' perceptions of coteaching found that teachers often viewed their schools' leadership decisions as adversely affecting their ability coteach effectively. The purpose of this article is to provide administrators with an overview of common coteaching models, summarize findings from our study on teachers' perceptions of how their schools' leadership influenced their coteaching practices, and provide a set of guiding questions to consider when seeking to support coteaching.

The Common Core State Standards emphasize the need for U.S. students to read complex texts. As a result, the level of word complexity for primary-level texts is important, particularly the dimensions of and changes in complexity between first grade and the important third-grade high-stakes testing year. In this study, we addressed word complexity in these grades by examining its dimensions and differences in the texts in three widely used U.S. reading programs. Fourteen measures of word complexity were computed, and exploratory factor analysis established that four dimensions--orthography, length, familiarity, and morphology--characterized word complexity. As expected, the third-grade texts have more complex words than the first-grade texts have in the four dimensions, with the greatest differences in length and familiarity. More surprisingly, the words in the first-grade texts increase in complexity over the year, but overall, the words in the third-grade texts do not. Polysyllabic words are common in texts in both grades, comprising 48% of unique words in first-grade texts and 65% in third-grade texts. Polymorphemic words comprise 13% of unique first-grade words and 19% of third-grade words (for derived words, 3% and 6%, respectively, of all words). Results show that word complexity changes markedly between grades as expected, not only in length and familiarity but also in syllabic and morphemic structure. Implications for instruction and future word complexity analyses are discussed.

We examined the effects of a professional development (PD) with coaching model designed to improve literacy and co-taught instruction for students with and without disabilities in co-taught content-area middle school classes. Eleven co-teaching pairs in nine schools were randomly assigned to the Content Area Literacy Instruction (CALI) condition (n = 7 pairs) or a business-as-usual comparison condition (n = 4 pairs). All 22 teachers individually completed researcher developed pre- and posttests of teacher knowledge and skills and perceived effectiveness of their personal ability and their co-teachers' ability. At pre- and posttest, students (n = 212) completed three measures of reading comprehension. CALI teachers demonstrated significantly higher scores than comparison teachers at posttest on a measure of knowledge and skills, perceived personal effectiveness, and perceived co-teachers' effectiveness. All CALI co-teaching pairs demonstrated high levels of fidelity. Students in the CALI classrooms demonstrated significant gains on an essential aspect of a researcher-developed measure of reading comprehension. However, the treatment effect was non-significant for the two standardized measures of reading comprehension. Results provide initial support for a model in improving teacher instructional outcomes and student academic outcomes.

This study reports practices implemented in over 2,000 minutes by 16 middle school special education and general education co-teaching pairs in English language arts classes. We report the extent to which teachers integrated literacy activities that support reading comprehension, the co-teaching models used, and the frequency with which each teacher led instruction. We also report the types of grouping structures teachers used and the extent to which teachers interacted with students with disabilities. Finally, we report the types of text used. Observations revealed that more than half of time spent on literacy activities involved reading aloud or silently with no co-occurring literacy instruction that supports reading comprehension. Students with disabilities spent a majority of their time in whole-class instruction or working independently with little teacher interaction. Special education teachers spent most of their time supporting whole-class instruction led by the content-area teacher. Implications and directions for future research are provided.

The papers in the special series describe the role of data-based decision-making (DBDM) in improving the outcomes of students with learning disabilities based on research across Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. The articles address multiple aspects of a model of DBDM that includes the role of teacher knowledge, skills, beliefs, and sources of professional learning and the role of systems-level factors in improving student achievement. In this article, the conclusions of each paper are described in terms of that model. The papers illustrate that DBDM can improve achievement for students with learning disabilities through a DBDM process called data-based individualization (DBI)--especially if teachers have innovative supports (e.g., new technologies). For teachers, DBDM professional development (PD) can improve DBDM knowledge and implementation, but PD may not be adequate in all cases, with practical experience playing a central role. In addition, classroom-level DBDM may not translate to success for students with learning disabilities. Finally, the articles reveal a need to focus more on systems-level factors in successful DBDM systems like DBI--especially when implemented outside the experimental context. These findings provide a contemporary lens on DBDM as it related to students with learning disabilities and establish foci for future research.

Syntactic complexity has been recognized as an important construct in writing research, and for the past five decades, many syntactic complexity measures (SCMs) have been examined in numerous studies. This systematic review is the first study of its kind to synthesize 36 studies spanning from 1970 to 2019 by identifying and cataloging all SCMs examined during this period. An analysis was performed on how the use of SCMs varied by genre, grade level, students' writing ability, and writing quality. Five online databases ("Academic Search Premier," "ERIC," "PsycINFO," "Psychology and Behavioral Sciences," and "PsycARTICLES") were searched. A total of 48 SCMs were grouped into six categories: T-units and sentences, clauses, phrases, words, combined measures, and other measures. Most studies examined three common SCMs: mean T-unit length, mean number of words per clause, and mean number of clauses per T-unit. The argumentative genre had the highest values for T-unit length and mean number of clauses per T-unit, which could indicate greater sentence complexity. Higher-grade-level students generally construct sentences that are syntactically complex, but comparison between studies was difficult because different studies investigated different SCMs. Although students with higher writing abilities generally construct sentences that are syntactically more complex compared to students with lower writing abilities, the findings are not conclusive, as only a few studies examined this relationship. A similarly inconclusive relationship was found between syntactic complexity and writing quality because only a few studies examined this relationship. More research is needed to examine the relationship between SCMs, writing quality, and genre.

Purpose: Phonological awareness (PA), the awareness of sounds in spoken words, is strongly linked to reading outcomes. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness of PA instruction without including print (i.e. PA without exposure to words or letters). Specifically, is PA-only instruction just as effective in improving reading outcomes when compared to print-based instruction (e.g. phonics)? Method: Robust variance estimation was used to examine the effectiveness of PA-only instruction across 38 independent studies and 293 effect sizes. The sample consisted of 3,880 participants in preschool through first grade. The average age of participants was 5 years 7 months. Moderator analysis were conducted to examine differences in effect across outcomes, comparison conditions and participant characteristics. Results: PA-only instruction had a moderate overall effect (g = 0.57, 95% CI [0.40, 0.74], p <.001) on reading-related outcomes. PA-only instruction was less effective when compared to print-based instruction (g = −0.54, 95% CI [−0.80, −0.27], p <.001) and less effective for word reading outcomes (g = -0.33, 95% CI [−0.66, −0.01], p =.05) than for PA outcomes (g = 0.64, 95% CI [0.44, 0.84], p <.001). Conclusion: PA-only instruction can be beneficial for reading-related outcomes, but the effect varies depending on two important contextual factors: 1) the reading outcome type and 2) the comparison condition. Specifically, PA-only instruction might be less effective in improving word reading outcomes than PA outcomes. In addition, it has less of an effect on reading-related outcomes when compared to print-based instruction like phonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programs for teaching English reading, especially for students with dyslexia, and educational practice standards often recommend instruction on dividing polysyllabic words into syllables. Syllable division is effort intensive and could inhibit fluency when reading in text. The division strategies might still be useful if they work so consistently that they will help students decode most unfamiliar polysyllabic words. No study of the English lexicon has confirmed that the pattern is highly consistent. This study addresses this gap in the literature. The utility of the two most frequently taught patterns was examined in a corpus analysis of 14,844 words from texts used in grades 1-8. The VC|CV pattern involves a single vowel (V), two consonants (CC), and another vowel. According to the expected pattern, the first vowel should have a short (lax) sound, such as the "a" in "rabbit." This was true of 70.6% of instances in VCCV words in the corpus. For the V|CV pattern, the first vowel is expected have a long (tense) sound, such as the "a" in "mason." This was true in 30.5% of instances in VCV words in the corpus. The patterns were more consistent for bisyllabic words than longer words (78.8% vs. 62.5% for VCCV words and 47.3% vs. 18.8% for VCV words, respectively). When comparing only short- and long-vowel pronunciations (ignoring other sounds such as schwa), the first vowel followed the expected pattern in 94.3% instances of VCCV words and 53.3% of VCV words. The unreliability of VCV may not justify the effort required to use the strategy. There are implications for the debate about the science of reading.

Can the science of reading contribute to improving educational practices, allowing more students to become skilled readers? Much has been learned about the behavioral and brain bases of reading, how students learn to read, and factors that contribute to low literacy. The potential to use research findings to improve literacy outcomes is substantial but remains largely unrealized. The lack of improvement in literacy levels, especially among students who face other challenges such as poverty, has led to new pressure to incorporate the science of reading in curricula, instructional practices, and teacher education. In the interest of promoting these efforts, the authors discuss three issues that could undermine them: the need for additional translational research linking reading science to classroom activities, the oversimplified way that the science is sometimes represented in the educational context, and the fact that theories of reading have become more complex and less intuitive as the field has progressed. Addressing these concerns may allow reading science to be used more effectively and achieve greater acceptance among educators.

The orthographic choice (OC) task--requiring individuals to choose the correct spelling between a word and a pseudohomophone foil (e.g., "goat" vs. "gote")--has been used as an outcome measure of orthographic learning and as a predictor of individual differences in word reading development. Some consider the OC task a measure of orthographic knowledge (e.g., Conrad, Harris, & Williams (Reading and Writing, 26(8), 1223-1239, 2013)), whereas others have suggested that the task measures a reader's familiarity with the word's orthographic representation and thus measures word reading skill (e.g., Castles & Nation, 2006). We examined this assertion by testing OC task performance of individuals ages 8 to 18 (J = 296) and their ability to read the OC target words (I = 80) in isolation using crossed random effects item-response models. Results reveal that response on the OC task is not fully determined by the ability of an individual to read the target word in isolation. Specifically, the probability of choosing the correct orthographic form when the word was pronounced incorrectly was 0.79; whereas it was 0.90 when the word was pronounced correctly. Measures of receptive spelling and phonemic awareness (person-characteristics) and word frequency and orthographic neighborhood size (item-characteristics) accounted for significant variance in orthographic choice after controlling for target item reading and other reading-related abilities. We interpret the results to suggest that the OC task taps both item-specific orthographic knowledge and more general orthographic knowledge.

The purpose of this study was to examine word learning efficiency in at-risk first grade students (N = 93) participating in a yearlong study evaluating a multicomponent intervention targeting word reading and decoding skills. As part of each intervention lesson, students participated in a 1 to 3-min sight word reading activity in which high-frequency words were read from a list until mastered, at which point the word dropped off the list. This study explored factors predicting the number of exposures required for item reading mastery (N = 145 words). Specifically, we explored how the number of word exposures required to reach mastery varied as a function of linguistic features of the words and cognitive characteristics of the students. Using item-level crossed-random effects models, we found students required an average of 5.65 exposures for mastery, with word features representing word length, vocabulary grade, and imageability being significant predictors of learning efficiency. We also found a significant interaction between pretest word reading skill and imageability of a word, with this semantic feature being especially important for the poorest readers. Results indicate that in the absence of typical word recognition skills, poor readers tend to rely on other sources of information to learn words, which tend to be related to the semantic features of words.

We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a randomized control trial to explore this question: Does "response/no response" best characterize students' reactions to a generally efficacious first-grade reading program, or is a more nuanced characterization necessary? Data were collected on 265 at-risk readers' word reading prior to and immediately following program implementation in first grade and in spring of second grade. Pretreatment data were also obtained on domain-specific skills (letter knowledge, decoding, passage comprehension, language) and domain-general skills (working memory, non-verbal reasoning). Latent profile analysis of word reading across the three time points with controls as a local norm revealed a "strongly responsive" group (n = 45) with mean word-reading z scores of 0.25, 1.64, and 1.26 at the three time points, respectively; a "mildly responsive" group (n = 109), z scores = 0.30, 0.47, and 0.55; a "mildly non-responsive" group (n = 90), z scores = -0.11, -0.15, and -0.55; and a "strongly non-responsive" group (n = 21), z scores = -1.24, -1.26, and -1.57. The two responsive groups had stronger pretreatment letter knowledge and passage comprehension than the two non-responsive groups. The mildly non-responsive group demonstrated better pretreatment passage comprehension than the strongly non-responsive group. No domain-general skill distinguished the four groups. Findings suggest response to early reading intervention was more complicated than response/no response, and pretreatment reading comprehension was an important predictor of response even with pretreatment word reading controlled.

In an effort to improve oral reading, beginning and remedial reading programs in English focus on phonological awareness skills and recoding with grapheme--phoneme correspondences. The meanings of the words children practice reading aloud are given little emphasis. Some studies now suggest semantic knowledge may have a direct effect on children's oral reading, but it is unclear whether it is due to knowledge of a given word, general semantic knowledge (vocabulary size), or morphological awareness. We asked third and fourth graders with reading difficulty and their typically achieving peers (N = 95) to read polysyllabic words (N = 48) in isolation. We tested children's semantic knowledge for those specific words, general semantic knowledge (vocabulary size), morphological awareness, and orthographic and phonological knowledge. Using generalized linear mixed-effects models, we found a word-specific semantic effect--along with word-specific orthographic and phonological effects--and general effects of semantic knowledge, morphological awareness, and phonological awareness. The results add to the studies showing the importance of semantic information but is unique in clarifying that a general semantic effect may be at least partly morphological. The findings support a distributed processing account of reading acquisition in which readers use all reliable information to pronounce words, not only letter--sound consistencies. There may be implications for curriculum design. The word-specific semantic effect may suggest that beginning readers should practice reading words in their phonological lexicons. The general morphological effect suggests that children might benefit from learning morphological units early in their reading development.

This study explored the developmental trajectories and predictors of word reading and reading comprehension among young at-risk readers. In fall of first grade, 185 students identified as at-risk for reading difficulties were assessed on measures of domain-specific skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and vocabulary), domain-general skills (working memory, nonverbal reasoning, and processing speed), and word reading and reading comprehension. Word reading and reading comprehension were assessed again in spring of grades 1-4. Individual growth curve modeling showed that the children demonstrated decelerated growth on word reading and linear growth on reading comprehension, although their performance on both word reading and reading comprehension were consistently below average on national norms. After controlling for word reading and reading comprehension in first grade, letter knowledge predicted growth in word reading; vocabulary and nonverbal reasoning predicted growth in reading comprehension. That is, we found different developmental trajectories and different predictors for word reading and reading comprehension among our at-risk sample. Implications are discussed for theory and early reading instruction for at-risk children.

Learning to read English is more difficult than in most other alphabetic languages. It sometimes seems there are not reliable rules for linking letters with sounds. Teaching students all of the letter patterns they may find in texts is no simple task. Students struggle processing the sounds in words, so even words with simple spellings are difficult. Words with complex letter patterns place an even greater burden on their memory systems and make accurate reading even harder. As a result, students with dyslexia often read slowly and guess at difficult words. The good news is that English has many "exemplary regularities." Many consonants are pronounced as expected in almost all words. Teachers can help students by teaching them these regularities one by one, slowly expanding students' understanding of the sound-spelling system. Teachers sometimes refer to this as "the Treasure Hunt," a playful way of describing how teachers introduce the complexities gradually. The trick of the game is that the complexities (like each clue) were always there; teachers just begin with the simplest consistent patterns and hide the rest until students are ready to learn them. In this article, the authors discuss the English spelling system, dyslexia, and polysyllabic words. They then provide strategies to improve polysyllabic word reading.

Because of the importance of teaching reading comprehension to struggling young readers and the infrequency with which it has been implemented and evaluated, we designed a comprehensive first-grade reading comprehension program. We conducted a component analysis of the program's decoding/fluency and reading comprehension dimensions (DF and COMP), creating DF and DF+COMP treatments to parse the value of COMP. Students (N = 125) were randomly assigned to the two active treatments and controls. Treatment children were tutored three times per week for 21 weeks in 45-min sessions. Children in DF and DF+COMP together performed more strongly than controls on word reading and comprehension. However, pretreatment word reading appeared to moderate these results such that children with weaker beginning word reading across the treatments outperformed similarly low-performing controls to a significantly greater extent than treatment children with stronger beginning word reading outperformed comparable controls. DF+COMP children did not perform better than DF children. Study limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.

Purpose: Children with dyslexia often have related writing difficulties. In the simple view of writing model, high-quality writing depends on good transcription skills, working memory, and executive function--all of which can be difficult for children with dyslexia and result in poor spelling and low overall writing quality. In this article, we describe the challenges of children with dyslexia in terms of the simple view of writing and instructional strategies to increase spelling and overall writing quality in children with dyslexia. Method: For spelling strategies, we conducted systematic searches across 2 databases for studies examining the effectiveness of spelling interventions for students with dyslexia as well as including studies from 2 meta-analyses. To locate other instructional practices to increase writing quality (e.g., handwriting and executive function), we examined recent meta-analyses of writing and supplemented that by conducting forward searches. Results: Through the search, we found evidence of effective remedial and compensatory intervention strategies in spelling, transcription, executive function, and working memory. Some strategies included spelling using sound-spellings and morphemes and overall quality using text structure, sentence combining, and self-regulated strategy development. Conclusions: Many students with dyslexia experience writing difficulty in multiple areas. However, their writing (and even reading) skills can improve with the instructional strategies identified in this article. We describe instructional procedures and provide links to resources throughout the article.

Models of irregular word reading that take into account both child- and word-level predictors have not been evaluated in typically developing children and children with reading difficulty (RD). The purpose of the present study was to model individual differences in irregular word reading ability among 5th grade children (N = 170), oversampled for children with RD, using item-response crossed random-effects models. We distinguish between 2 subtypes of children with word reading RD, those with early emerging and late-emerging RD, and 2 types of irregular words, "exception" and "strange." Predictors representing child-level and word-level characteristics, along with selected interactions between child- and word-characteristics, were used to predict item-level variance. Individual differences in irregular word reading were predicted at the child level by nonword decoding, orthographic coding, and vocabulary; at the word level by word frequency and a spelling-to-pronunciation transparency rating; and by the Reader group × Imageability and Reader group × Irregular word type interactions. Results are interpreted within a model of irregular word reading in which lexical characteristics specific to both child and word influence accuracy.

Children in the elementary grades are expected to solve equations to demonstrate prealgebraic proficiency. Prealgebraic differences may emerge based equation type (i.e., standard vs. nonstandard), the operation shown or required for solution (i.e., addition or subtraction), and the position of the unknown. Prealgebraic differences may also be influenced based on arithmetic proficiency. We evaluated the performance of 1,796 1st- and 2nd-grade children on a measure of standard and nonstandard equations to learn whether arithmetic fluency predicts prealgebraic performance, which characteristics of prealgebraic items determine item difficulty, and whether certain demographic variables contribute to prealgebraic performance. Results indicate prealgebraic differences by grade level and season (i.e., fall or spring) of administration. Arithmetic influences prealgebraic performance, and nonstandard equations that require a relational understanding of the equal sign are most difficult for young children.

Comprehensive models of derived polymorphemic word recognition skill in developing readers, with an emphasis on children with reading difficulty (RD), have not been developed. The purpose of the present study was to model individual differences in polymorphemic word recognition ability at the item level among 5th-grade children (N = 173) oversampled for children with RD using item-response crossed random-effects models. We distinguish between two subtypes of RD children with word recognition problems, those with early-emerging RD and late-emerging RD. An extensive set of predictors representing item-specific knowledge, child-level characteristics, and word-level characteristics were used to predict item-level variance in polymorphemic word recognition. Results indicate that item-specific root word recognition and word familiarity; child-level RD status, morphological awareness, and orthographic choice; word-level frequency and root word family size; and the interactions between morphological awareness and RD status and root word recognition and root transparency predicted individual differences in polymorphemic word recognition item performance. Results are interpreted within a multisource individual difference model of polymorphemic word recognition skill spanning item-specific, child-level, and word-level knowledge.

This study addresses whether reading involves a process termed semantic and phonological ability to adjust recoding (SPAAR). It was hypothesized that SPAAR helps readers link inaccurate pronunciations to lexical entries (e.g., "spynitch" to "spinach"). Psychometric properties of the Mispronunciation Correction Task (MCT), a measure of SPAAR, were investigated using a sample of 206 elementary-age children. The 25-item MCT appeared to measure a single construct, and the items discriminated well across the range of ability. Based on a sample of 94 children, construct validity analyses indicated that phonological awareness and decoding skill predicted MCT performance. Hierarchical regressions were used to test the relationship between SPAAR and word reading. After controlling for other skills, SPAAR showed a relationship with both timed and untimed word reading. Phonological awareness did not. These data suggest that SPAAR may be a reading-related ability involving phonological processing and some form of semantic processing.

Developing readers of English appear to favor phonograms over grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) to read unknown words. For polysyllabic polymorphemic (PSPM) words, the morphophonemic nature of English means elementary-age children may focus on roots and affixes. Does developing readers' PSPM word reading accuracy relate to the morphological units, the nonmorphological, or both? In this study, 3rd and 4th graders (N = 202) read PSPM words (N = 45), and models were constructed to answer this question. A nonmorphological polysyllabic model showed a main effect of phonological awareness; a Vocabulary Size × Word Frequency interaction, with larger vocabularies improving accuracy for low-frequency words; and a GPC Knowledge × Word Frequency interaction, with a slight negative GPC knowledge effect for all but low-frequency words. A polymorphemic model showed main effects of word-specific root word knowledge, general root word reading, vocabulary, and word frequency. A Morphological Awareness × Morphological Transparency interaction showed morphological awareness affected accuracy for shift words more than transparent ones. In a combined model, effects were the same, except GPC knowledge positively affected accuracy for very low-frequency words, vocabulary and frequency had only main effects, and a bigram frequency effect was found. The polysyllabic model reduced child and item variance by 45% and 43%, respectively; the polymorphemic model by 62% and 67%; and the combined model by 69% and 69%. The results suggest that elementary-age developing readers rely on morphological information to read PSPM words. Implications for models of reading and reading intervention are discussed.

Current Arabic reading instruction places strong emphasis on orthographic skills and little emphasis on phonological and morphological skills. Yet, the role of each skill in reading development in Arabic is not well understood. The purpose of this literature review was to examine the degree to which children learning to read in Arabic use orthographic, phonological, and morphological skills when they pronounce Arabic words. We conducted a comprehensive literature search and located 12 studies that examined the relation between these three skills and Arabic word reading for students in grades K-12. Sublexical orthographic skills were associated with Arabic word reading, especially in reading vowelized text. Phonological skills had the strongest relation with reading Arabic words of the three skills, across vowelized and unvowelized texts, and in grades 1-5. Morphological skills were examined in very few studies, but there was some evidence of association with word reading in skilled readers. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to the design of two national curricula for teaching beginning Arabic reading.

The current study models reader, item, and word contributions to the lexical representations of 39 morphologically complex words for 172 middle school students using a crossed random-effects item response model with multiple outcomes. We report 3 findings. First, results suggest that lexical representations can be characterized by separate but correlated dimensions of derived-word reading, spelling, and meaning. Second, a reader's morphological knowledge of a root word (e.g., "isolate") contributes to that reader's lexical representations (i.e., mental representation of form and meaning) of a related derived word (e.g., "isolation"). Specifically, when controlling for reader and word characteristics, knowledge of root-word reading and morphological relatives and self-reported knowledge of meaning contributed to derived-word reading. Similarly, knowledge of root-word spelling and morphological relatives and self-reported knowledge of meaning contributed to derived-word spelling. Also, knowledge of root-word morphological relatives and self-reported knowledge of meaning contributed to self-reported knowledge of derived-word meaning. Our third finding is that after controlling for root-word knowledge, part of the remaining variability in lexical representations can be explained by reader and word characteristics, with different patterns of results for each lexical representation dimension. The significant reader characteristics include reading comprehension, morphological awareness, and vocabulary knowledge, whereas the significant word characteristics include frequency of the derived and root word, orthographic--phonological opaqueness, and phonological opaqueness. A model of what constitutes and contributes to lexical representations for adolescent readers is suggested.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the relation between morphological awareness on reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability in fifth-grade students ("N" = 169, 53.7% female, 65.2% minority status, 69.2% free/reduced lunch status), oversampled for poor reading skill, when controlling for general knowledge and vocabulary. Based on the lexical quality hypothesis, it was expected that morphological awareness would have a stronger effect on comprehension for children with poor word reading skills, suggesting possible use of morphological awareness for word identification support. Results indicated that neither morphological awareness nor word reading was uniquely associated with reading comprehension when both were included in the model along with vocabulary and general knowledge. Instead, the interaction between word reading and morphological awareness explained significant additional variance in reading comprehension. By probing this interaction, it was determined that the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension was significant for the 39% of the sample that had more difficulty reading multisyllabic words but not for students at the higher end of the multisyllabic word reading continuum. We conclude from these results that the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability, providing support for the lexical quality hypothesis. Although we have only correlational data, we suggest tentative instructional practices for improving the reading skill of upper elementary struggling readers.

Students with persistent and severe reading difficulties pose a significant challenge for educators. The primary purpose of this article is to provide a detailed demonstration of data-based individualization (DBI) implementation in the area of reading. Also provided are various resources a teacher may access to learn more about the instructional strategies included in this article's hypothetical example. The authors describe an example of a special education teacher and one of her students, implementing DBI throughout his fourth grade year. Most students who need DBI will have demonstrated insufficient response to previous remediation attempts. Therefore, the teacher when preparing to implement DBI, should follow a checklist for getting started which includes: (1) selecting an instructional platform; (2) determining how to intensify the platform; (3) making a progress-monitoring plan; (4) setting instructional goals; and (5) making final preparations. The authors intended for this hypothetical example to highlight the feasibility of implementing DBI, which, although it may require additional work, is well worth the potential improvements in student outcomes.

Stakeholders are debating the value of cognitively focused instruction for students who have not benefited from a skills-based approach. Much of the discussion, however, is occurring without recognition of research that has been conducted in the past 2 decades. In this article, we reviewed the research. Electronic databases and hard copies of scholarly journals were searched; 239 references were identified; and 50 pertinent studies were analyzed to determine the effects of cognitively focused instruction--delivered alone or in combination with academic instruction--on students described as demonstrating poor academic achievement, learning disabilities, or specific cognitive deficits. Findings suggest that several cognitive interventions accelerated low-achieving students' academic progress. Nevertheless, when the research is taken as a whole--when the pertinent studies and the interventions they describe are considered with regard to their content, quality, and results--we conclude that it does not support the use of cognitively focused instruction at this time. Implications for future research are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

The purpose of this study was to extend the literature on decoding by bringing together two lines of research, namely person and word factors that affect decoding, using a crossed random-effects model. The sample was composed of 196 English-speaking Grade 1 students. A researcher-developed pseudoword list was used as the primary outcome measure. Because grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) knowledge was treated as person and word specific, it was concluded that it is neither necessary nor sufficient for a student to know all GPCs in a word before accurately decoding the word. Controlling for word-specific GPC knowledge, students with lower phonemic awareness and slower rapid naming skill have lower predicted probabilities of correct decoding than do counterparts with superior skills. By assessing a Person x Word interaction, it was found that students with lower phonemic awareness have more difficulty applying knowledge of complex vowel graphemes compared with complex consonant graphemes when decoding unfamiliar words. Implications of the methodology and results are discussed in light of future research. (Contains 3 footnotes, 10 tables, and 3 figures.)