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Assessment of language skills for upper elementary and middle schoolers is important due to the strong link between language and reading comprehension. Yet, currently few practical, reliable, valid, and instructionally informative assessments of language exist. This study provides validation evidence for Monster, P.I., which is a gamified, standardized, computer-adaptive assessment (CAT) of language for fifth to eighth grade students. Creating Monster, P.I. involved an assessment of the dimensionality of morphology and vocabulary and an assessment of syntax. Results using multiple-group item response theory (IRT) with 3,214 fifth through eighth graders indicated morphology and vocabulary were best assessed via bifactor models and syntax unidimensionally. Therefore, Monster, P.I. provides scores on three component areas of language (multidimensional morphology and vocabulary and unidimensional syntax) with the goal of informing instruction. Validity results also suggest that Monster, P.I. scores show moderate correlations with each other and with standardized reading vocabulary and reading comprehension assessments. Furthermore, hierarchical regression results suggest an important link between Monster, P.I. and standardized reading comprehension, explaining between 56% and 75% of the variance. Such results indicate that Monster, P.I. can provide meaningful understandings of language performance which can guide instruction that can impact reading comprehension performance.

To inform instruction, screening and diagnostic assessments must collect accurate data about the current state of the learner. Unfortunately, students may find assessments unengaging, intimidating, or irrelevant, undermining the quality of their effort and the quality of the data. The application of gaming to assessments may provide a way to boost and sustain effortful test-taker engagement, an integration that has thus far yielded mixed results, at best. Our interdisciplinary team reviewed and evaluated existing gamification research to consolidate a set of guiding principles for effectively merging diagnostic assessment tasks and protocols with a motivating game-like context in ways that specifically foster high levels of test-taker effort. We share our work in this paper to help inform ongoing research and development leading to more efficient and effective assessments of children.

Much attention has been given to the development and validation of measures of growth mindset and its impact on learning, but the previous work has largely been focused on general measures of growth mindset. This research was focused on establishing the psychometric properties of a reading mindset (RM) measure among a sample of upper elementary school students and validating the measure through its relations with standardized measures of word reading and comprehension. The RM measure was developed to capture student's beliefs about their ability, learning goals, and effort during reading. Item response theory was used to select items that optimally measured the RM measure from a pool of existing items from previous research. The final five-item RM measure predicted reading comprehension outcomes above and beyond the effects of word reading, indicating that this measure may be an important tool for diagnosing noncognitive areas of improvement for developing readers. The implications, limitations, and future directions for expanding upon the measure were discussed.

Perfetti's representational quality hypothesis suggests that orthographic learning in developing readers is associated with two important changes to the orthographic lexicon that drive continued word reading development, namely, addition of word-specific representations and acquisition of complex context-dependent decoding skills. Perfetti further hypothesizes that these two changes are mutually facilitative suggesting a bidirectional relationship. To test this hypothesis, cross-lagged panel models were used to model the relationship between word reading and nonword reading longitudinally across Grades 1-4 in a diverse sample (N = 433) of developing readers. Overall results revealed the codevelopmental pattern between word and nonword reading to be bidirectional in nature such that word reading impacted later nonword reading and vice versa. These bidirectional relations did not differ significantly between those who qualify for free and reduced lunch and those who do not. However, differences were observed between those at-risk for dyslexia and those not at-risk.

Effects from different studies of reading and mindset interventions are inconsistent, pointing to the need to investigate moderating factors affecting response. In this study, we implemented two intensive intervention conditions for fourth-grade students with/at risk for reading disabilities (N = 360). One intervention condition included reading intervention only, whereas the other intervention condition incorporated both reading and mindset interventions. Through exploratory analyses, we examined student characteristics (sex, race/ethnicity, mindset) as moderators of the effects of the interventions on mindset, word attack, and reading comprehension outcomes and also explored potential interactions. Overall, we found no differential outcomes of intervention by race, sex, or initial mindset level. Our exploration of the interactions also did not yield any significant effects; however, we were limited by small sample sizes in subgroups. Overall, more research is needed to explore potential interactions moderating intervention outcomes.

This study examines blending of classroom- and family-based supports within a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS). The present study focuses on a sample of Head Start children who are both experiencing poverty and scoring below early language and literacy screening benchmarks. This study begins to explore which combination of resources are the most parsimonious, yet effective for improving language and literacy skills for such learners. We examine a model that first establishes Tier 1 and 2 supports in the classroom and then adds two aligned tiers of family engagement supports called Teaching Together. This study occurred in a large, metropolitan area in the southcentral region of the United States. It included 33 classrooms from three Head Start agencies (20 school sites). Pre-K classrooms were eligible to participate if: (a) instruction was predominantly in English, and (b) the teacher had not participated in PD projects offered by the university researchers in the past five years. These data suggest that Teaching Together holds promise as a school- and home-based intervention for increasing language skills amongst pre-K children at risk for later reading difficulties and eligible for Tier 2 services. Academic language is an essential skill for later reading and success in school. An aligned approach to explaining sophisticated vocabulary and engaging in extended, inferential conversation across the classroom and home could help close the vocabulary gap observed for DLLs and children from low-income backgrounds. Yet we found heterogeneity in response with greater vocabulary benefits mostly for children at the higher end of the distribution, suggesting future efforts should continue to examine for whom and under what conditions such academic language interventions are most beneficial.

Text reading fluency refers to the ability to read connected texts with accuracy, speed, and expression (prosody), and has garnered substantial attention as an important skill for reading comprehension. However, two fundamental questions remain--the dimensionality of text reading fluency including text reading efficiency (accuracy and speed) and reading prosody, and the directionality of the relation between text reading fluency and reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data from Grade 1 (M[subscript age] = 6.36 years) to Grade 3 (M[subscript age] = 8.34 years). Majority of children were White (approximately 60%) and African American (26%) with 39% to 52% from low-SES backgrounds, depending on the grade. Text reading fluency, word reading, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension were measured. Results from confirmatory factor analysis revealed that text reading fluency is a multidimensional construct with a trifactor structure, which has a general factor that captures common ability across text reading efficiency and reading prosody as well as local and specific factors that are unique beyond the general factor. However, the general factor was the most reliable factor, whereas local and specific factors were not reliable. The directionality of the relation between text reading fluency and reading comprehension was addressed by examining two competing structural equation models--text-reading-fluency-as-a-predictor/mediator model and text-reading-fluency-as-an-outcome model--and data supported the former. These results indicate that text reading fluency is a multidimensional construct, and it acts as a predictor, mediating the relations of word reading and listening comprehension to reading comprehension. [This article was published in "Developmental Psychology" (EJ1300306).]

Purpose: We examined whether affix type and base word transparency explained variation in third- through sixth-grade students' performance on a number of morphological awareness tasks. Method: Third- through sixth-grade students (n > 500 at each grade) completed morphological awareness tasks from the Morphological Awareness Test for Reading and Spelling, which represent the ways individuals may use their morphological awareness to support reading and spelling. Explanatory item response models were used to understand the role of affix type and base word transparency on students' performance on six morphological awareness tasks. Results: For all grades, 73%-83% of variance in students' performance was due to differences across individual items. Furthermore, when task effects, affix type, and base word transparency were included simultaneously in the model, affix type was not a significant predictor; there was a significant effect of base word transparency and task. Specifically, the probability of a correct response was greater on task items in which inflected or derived words were transparent with their base word (e.g., friend > friendly) compared to items in which there was a shift in both the phonological and orthographic aspects of the base word (e.g., attend > attention). Conclusions: These findings emphasize the importance of considering base word transparency when assessing students' morphological awareness skills with less emphasis on affix type, at least for third- through sixth-grade students. Our results also point to the importance of administering a variety of morphological awareness tasks to fully capture an individual's morphological awareness skills. Collectively, researchers and practitioners should ensure assessment items on multiple measures of morphological awareness vary in their base word transparency to potentially capture a range of student performances. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED624675.]

Recent research has focused on evaluating the relation between mindset and reading achievement. We used exploratory factor mixture models (E-FMMs) to examine the heterogeneity in reading achievement and mindset of 650 fourth graders with reading difficulties. To build E-FMMs, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses to examine the factor structure of scores of (a) mindset, (b) reading, and (c) mindset/reading combined. Our results indicated (a) a 2-factor model for mindset ("General Mindset vs. Reading Mindset"), (b) a 2-factor model for reading ("Word Reading vs. Comprehension"; four covariances), and (c) a combined model with significant correlations across mindset and reading factors. We ran E-FMMs on the combined model. Overall, we found three classes of students. We situate these results within the existing literature and discuss implications for practice and research.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a virtual intensive reading intervention embedded with mindset training compared with typical reading instruction in a business-as-usual (BAU) condition delivered to fourth-grade students with or at risk for reading disabilities. After screening, the 59 participants were stratified and assigned randomly to condition. Highly trained interventionists delivered the intervention one-to-one with high fidelity and student engagement during the intensive intervention. Classroom teachers delivered the BAU. We examined the effects of the intervention on a variety of standardized timed and untimed measures of word reading and decoding, reading fluency, comprehension, and mindset. We addressed two research questions: What are the effects of intensive virtual reading intervention embedded with mindset training relative to a BAU comparison on the reading outcomes of fourth-grade students with or at risk for reading disabilities? Was initial mindset related to student response to intervention? Data analyses examined the main effect and moderation using linear mixed effects models. Significant differences in reading favored the virtual treatment condition for letter and word identification (g = 0.38). No other significant effects were observed. We note limitations in our study and offer directions for future research, including the need to explore additional moderators.

It is widely recognized that individuals with dyslexia have difficulties with word reading and spelling, and individuals with reading comprehension difficulties have low vocabulary knowledge. However, little is known about the extent to which spelling and vocabulary are informative of reading difficulties. In the present study, we investigated whether information on students' spelling and vocabulary in kindergarten increases the precision of identifying students with reading difficulties, using longitudinal data from kindergarten to Grade 2. The sample was composed of 247 kindergartners (55% boys; 56% White children, 35% African American children, and 5% mixed-race children; 72% from low SES) who were followed to Grade 2. Spelling improved the accuracy of identifying students who experienced word reading difficulties in kindergarten and Grade 1. In contrast, vocabulary did not improve the accuracy of identifying students with reading difficulties over and above word reading and spelling. These results indicate the importance and utility of including spelling, in addition to word reading, as an integral part of accurately identifying children with reading difficulties as early as kindergarten. In addition, although vocabulary did not contribute additional predictive power, it is likely to exert its influence at a later phase of reading development. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED626819.]

Purpose: The current study takes a practical and theoretically grounded look at assessment of morphological knowledge and its potential to deepen understanding of how morphological knowledge supports reading comprehension for students with limited reading vocabulary. Specifically, we explore how different morphological skills support reading comprehension for students with typical reading vocabulary development compared to students with limited reading vocabulary. Method: A sample of 1,140 fifth through eighth graders were assessed via a gamified, computer-adaptive measure of language that contained a morphological knowledge assessment. Links to standardized reading comprehension were explored with a focus on determining differences for the 184 students in the sample who showed limited reading vocabulary knowledge. Specifically, multiple regression analyses were used to test for the relation between morphology skills and standardized reading comprehension, as well as the moderator effect of reading vocabulary on the relation between morphological knowledge and standardized reading comprehension. Results: Findings indicate that the four instructionally malleable morphological skills identified by the assessment differentially supported reading comprehension. These skills were (a) Morphological Awareness; (b) Syntactic Morphological Knowledge; (c) Semantic Morphological Knowledge; and (d) Phonological/Orthographic Morphological Knowledge. Significant interactions for students with limited reading vocabulary were shown in how the skills of Syntactic Morphological Knowledge, Semantic Morphological Knowledge, and Phonological/Orthographic Morphological Knowledge supported standardized Reading Comprehension. Conclusions: Given the challenges students with limited reading vocabulary have with semantic information, Syntactic Morphological Knowledge and Phonological/Orthographic Morphological Knowledge were particularly supportive, suggesting the compensatory role of these morphological skills. In contrast, Semantic Morphological Knowledge had a negative relationship with Reading Comprehension for students with limited reading vocabulary. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Previous studies of K-12 dyslexia legislation have described broad trends in legislative content, such as the presence or absence of screening and intervention requirements. This study uses document analysis to provide a finer-grained description of the laws to highlight critical variation in policy that will directly affect (a) the number and type of students identified as having or being at risk for specific reading disabilities, including dyslexia, (b) the types of supports they receive, and (c) the implementation of the laws. Results of the study indicate that differences in legislative content across states, and ambiguity within states, may lead to heterogeneous effects on student and school outcomes. Areas needing special analytic attention by researchers and policy implementers are discussed.

Complex data structures are ubiquitous in psychological research, especially in educational settings. In the context of randomized controlled trials, students are nested in classrooms but may be cross-classified by other units, such as small groups. Furthermore, in many cases only some students may be nested within a unit while other students may not. Such instances of partial nesting requires a more flexible framework for estimating treatment effects so that the model coefficients are correctly estimated. Although several recommendations have been offered to the field on handling partially nested data, few are comprehensive in their treatment of manifest and latent variables in the context of partial nesting, full nesting, and cross-classification. The present study introduces n-level structural equation modeling (SEM) as a flexible measurement and analytic framework for the estimation of treatment effects for complex data structures that frequently present in randomized controlled trials. In this tutorial, we explore how the notation of n-level SEM allows for parsimonious model specification whether data are observed or latent and in the presence of partial nested or cross-classified designs. By using the xxm package in R, the advantage of using n-level SEM framework is demonstrated through five examples for single outcome manifest variables, as in the traditional multilevel model, as well as latent applications as in multilevel SEM.

Our understanding about the developmental similarities and differences between oral and silent reading and their relations to reading proficiency (word reading and reading comprehension) in beginning readers is limited. To fill this gap, we investigated 368 first graders' oral and silent reading using eye-tracking technology at the beginning and end of the school year. Oral reading took a longer time (greater rereading times and refixations) than silent reading, but showed greater development (greater reduction in rereading times and fixations) from the beginning to the end of the year. The relation of eye-movement behaviors to reading proficiency was such that, for example, less rereading time was positively related to reading proficiency, and the relation was stronger in oral reading than in silent reading. Moreover, the nature of relations between eye movements and reading skill varied as a function of the child's reading proficiency such that the relations were weaker for poor readers, particularly at the beginning of the year. The relations between eye movements and reading proficiency stabilized in the spring for children whose reading skill was 0.30 quantile and above, but weaker relations remained for readers below 0.30 quantile. These findings suggest the importance of examining eye-movement behaviors in both oral and silent reading modes and their developmental relations to reading proficiency.

This study aimed to describe the narrative retell performance of dual language learners (DLLs) in the fall and spring of the school year and examine predictive relationships. Participants included 74 DLLs in kindergarten and first grade from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Microstructural measures included number of different words (NDW), words per minute (WPM), and verb accuracy. Macrostructural measures included number of total story elements and number of different types of story elements. Path analysis models were used to test the relations among variables. Findings indicated that narrative measures were sensitive to developmental differences across the school year. Fall NDW performance in narrative retells was moderately related to both spring NDW and the total number of macrostructural elements in the spring. Spring WPM was uniquely predicted by fall WPM. Authors concluded that narrative retells are sensitive to developmental differences across a school year for DLLs. Findings support the use of narrative retell measures as a promising tool to examine and describe English language growth of young DLLs within a school year.

We investigated the contributions of multiple strands of factors-individual characteristics (struggling reader status, working memory, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, knowledge-based inference, theory of mind, comprehension monitoring), a text feature (narrative vs. expository genre), and question types (literal and inferential)-to one's performance on discourse comprehension in oral language (listening comprehension), using data from 529 second graders. Results from explanatory item response models revealed that substantial variance in listening comprehension was attributable to differences between items, texts, and children, respectively. Narrative versus expository genre distinctions explained almost all of the variance attributable to text differences. In contrast, literal versus inferential question distinctions did not explain item responses after accounting for text and reading comprehension status. However, there was a moderation between struggling reader status and question type such that struggling readers had a slightly higher (2%) probability of getting inferential questions right compared to typically developing readers, after accounting for individual and text factors. Struggling readers have a lower probability of accurate item responses than typically developing readers, but the difference disappeared once language and cognitive skills (e.g., working memory, vocabulary) were taken into consideration. The effects of text genre and question type on item responses did not differ as a function of children's language and cognitive skills. Overall, these results underscore the importance of considering individual, text, and assessment factors for children's performance in listening comprehension.

Text reading fluency refers to the ability to read connected texts with accuracy, speed, and expression (prosody), and has garnered substantial attention as an important skill for reading comprehension. However, two fundamental questions remain-the dimensionality of text reading fluency including text reading efficiency (accuracy and speed) and reading prosody, and the directionality of the relation between text reading fluency and reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data from Grade 1 (Mage = 6.36 years) to Grade 3 (Mage = 8.34 years). Majority of children were White (approximately 60%) and African American (26%) with 39% to 52% from low-SES backgrounds, depending on the grade. Text reading fluency, word reading, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension were measured. Results from confirmatory factor analysis revealed that text reading fluency is a multidimensional construct with a trifactor structure, which has a general factor that captures common ability across text reading efficiency and reading prosody as well as local and specific factors that are unique beyond the general factor. However, the general factor was the most reliable factor, whereas local and specific factors were not reliable. The directionality of the relation between text reading fluency and reading comprehension was addressed by examining two competing structural equation models-text-reading-fluency-as-a-predictor/mediator model and text-reading-fluency-as-an-outcome model-and data supported the former. These results indicate that text reading fluency is a multidimensional construct, and it acts as a predictor, mediating the relations of word reading and listening comprehension to reading comprehension. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Purpose: We examined whether diverse profiles of strengths and weaknesses would emerge when assessing different aspects of morphological awareness in first- through sixth-grade students using a recently developed standardized test, the Morphological Awareness Test for Reading and Spelling (MATRS; Apel et al., 2021). Method: Four thousand fifty-nine first- through sixth-grade students completed the eight morphological awareness tasks of the MATRS. The eight tasks represent the multiple ways that morphological awareness impacts both spoken and written language skills for the English language. Exploratory finite mixture models estimated the number of latent subgroups that best reflected heterogeneity in task-level performance by grade level. Specific profiles were chosen that demonstrated strong reliability and included a set of tasks that were consistent between first- and second-grade students and between third- and sixth-grade students. Results: Different performance profiles emerged when the students completed multiple morphological awareness tasks. At each of the six grades (first through sixth), clusters of students performed differentially on specific tasks. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that students can differ in patterns of strength and weaknesses of their morphological awareness given a range of tasks that assess different aspects of morphological awareness. The clinical implications of these findings suggest that by identifying students struggling in specific areas of morphological awareness, clinicians can develop and implement specific prescriptive instructional plans. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED619910.]

Purpose: This study explores the roles of morphological skills (Morphological Awareness, Morphological-Syntactic-Knowledge,Morphological-Semantic-Knowledge, and Morphological-Orthographic/Phonological-Knowledge), vocabulary (knowledge of definitions, relationships between words, and polysemous meanings), and syntax in contributing to adolescent reading comprehension. Specifically, we identify the relative importance of these language skills. Methods: A racially diverse sample of 1,027 students grades 5 to 8 were studied. Dominance Analysis was used, which allows a rank ordering of the contribution of predictors. Results: Results suggest unique roles for each language area with particularly important roles for vocabulary and morphological awareness. Considering just morphology, four morphology skills each explained meaningful variance (13-17%) in reading comprehension, together explaining half the variance in standardized reading comprehension. Considering each language area, vocabulary, the four morphology skills, and syntax were shown to each explain meaningful variance, ranging from 9-13%, together explaining 62.9% of the variance in reading comprehension. Conclusions: Findings are interpreted within the Reading Systems framework. Findings confirm the role of vocabulary, morphology, and syntax in supporting reading comprehension and suggest a relatively stronger role for vocabulary and morphological awareness. The meaningful role of the four morphological skills also suggests a broad role for morphology. Implications for theory, research, and practice are shared. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED617077.]

Eye movements provide a sensitive window into cognitive processing during reading. In the present study, we investigated beginning readers' longitudinal changes in temporal and spatial measures of eye movements during oral versus silent reading, the extent to which variation in eye movements is attributable to individual differences and text differences, and the functional form of growth trajectories of eye-movement variables. Data were from 363 English-speaking children (52% male; 59.8% White) in the US who were followed longitudinally from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Results showed a rapid decrease in temporal eye-movement measures (e.g., first fixation) and an increase in spatial eye-movement measures (initial landing position) in both oral and silent reading. The majority of variance in eye movements was attributable to individual differences whereas some variance in initial landing position was due to text differences. Most eye-movement measures had nonlinear growth trajectories where fast development tapered off near the end of Grade 3 while initial fixation count and total gaze count in silent reading had a linear growth trajectory. The findings provide a first large-scale look into the developmental progression of eye movements during oral and silent reading during a critical period when reading skills rapidly develop.

Considerable attention and legislation are currently focused on developmental dyslexia. A major challenge to these efforts is how to define and operationalize dyslexia. In this article, we argue that rather than defining dyslexia on the basis of an underlying condition, dyslexia is best viewed as a label for an unexpected reading disability. This view fits well with a preventive approach in which risk for reading disability is identified and addressed prior to children experiencing reading failure. A risk-resilience model is introduced that proposes that dyslexia is due to the cumulative effects of risk and resilience factors. Evidence for the multifactorial causal basis of dyslexia is reviewed and potential factors that may offset this risk are considered. The implications of a cumulative risk and resilience model for early identification and intervention is discussed.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effect of an intensive vocabulary intervention embedded in e-books on the vocabulary skills of young Spanish-English speaking English learners (ELs) from low-socioeconomic status backgrounds. Method: Children (N = 288) in kindergarten and 1st grade were randomly assigned to treatment and read-only conditions. All children received e-book readings approximately 3 times a week for 10-20 weeks using the same books. Children in the treatment condition received e-books supplemented with vocabulary instruction that included scaffolding through explanations in Spanish, repetition in English, checks for understanding, and highlighted morphology. Results: There was a main effect of the intervention on expressive labeling (g = 0.38) and vocabulary on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test--Fourth Edition (g = 0.14; Dunn & Dunn, 2007), with no significant moderation effect of initial Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test score. There was no significant difference between conditions on children's expressive definitions. Conclusion: Findings substantiate the effectiveness of computer-implemented embedded vocabulary intervention for increasing ELs' vocabulary knowledge.

The primary focus of this study was to determine the feasibility of teacher implementation of peer-assisted writing strategies (PAWS) in improving the writing outcomes of kindergarten children. Six classrooms were recruited, and 3 were randomly assigned to the experimental condition. Results indicated that the content, length, and formatting of the lessons were adequate for the teachers to deliver the lessons with fidelity. Students enjoyed PAWS, as reflected in the end-of-the-year surveys. Statistically significant differences between the experimental and control classrooms were noted for punctuation and sentence writing quality. In addition, preliminary results with our small sample size suggest that differences in writing performance between the PAWS and control classrooms were moderated by school type. In the medium performing schools, differences between pre- and posttest scores were statistically significant for alphabet-writing fluency, punctuation, and sentence and essay curriculum based writing measures, with effect sizes ranging from 0.69 to 1.96. [This article was published in "Elementary School Journal" (EJ1180329).]

Do your peers in the classroom have an effect on your vocabulary learning? The purpose of this study was to determine if group-level peer characteristics and group-level peer achievement account for individual-level differences in vocabulary achievement using a large sample of students in kindergarten through second grade (n = 389,917). We applied a mixed-modeling approach to control for students nested among peers, and used quantile regression to test if group-level peer effects functioned similarly across the range of conditional student ability in vocabulary knowledge. Group-level peer effects were more strongly related to vocabulary achievement for students at the low end of the conditional distribution of vocabulary. The difference in vocabulary achievement between children with and without an individualized education program increased as quantiles of the conditional vocabulary distribution increased. Children with lower relative fall scores had better spring scores when they were in homogenous classrooms (i.e., their peers had similar levels of achievement). The importance of classroom composition and implications for accounting for peer effects are discussed.

The history of vocabulary research has specified a rich and complex construct, resulting in calls for vocabulary research, assessment, and instruction to take into account the complex problem space of vocabulary. At the intersection of vocabulary theory and assessment modeling, this paper suggests a suite of modeling techniques that model the complex structures present in vocabulary data in ways that can build an understanding of vocabulary development and its links to instruction. In particular, we highlight models that can help researchers and practitioners identify and understand construct-relevant and construct-irrelevant aspects of assessing vocabulary knowledge. Drawing on examples from recent research and from our own three-year project to develop a standardized measure of language and vocabulary, we present four types of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models: single-factor, correlated-traits, bi-factor, and tri-factor models. We highlight how each of these approaches offers particular insights into the complex problem space of assessing vocabulary in ways that can inform vocabulary assessment, theory, research, and instruction. Examples include identifying construct-relevant general or specific factors like skills or different aspects of word knowledge that could link to instruction while at the same time preventing an overly-narrow focus on construct-irrelevant factors like task-specific or word-specific demands. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

We investigated developmental trajectories of and the relation between reading and writing (word reading, reading comprehension, spelling, and written composition), using longitudinal data from students in Grades 3-6 in the US. Results revealed that word reading and spelling were best described as having linear growth trajectories whereas reading comprehension and written composition showed nonlinear growth trajectories with a quadratic function during the examined developmental period. Word reading and spelling were consistently strongly related (0.73 [less than or equal to] rs [less than or equal to] 0.80) whereas reading comprehension and written composition were weakly related (0.21 [less than or equal to] rs [less than or equal to] 0.37). Initial status and linear slope were negatively and moderately related for word reading (- 0.44) whereas they were strongly and positively related for spelling (0.73). Initial status of word reading predicted initial status and growth rate of spelling; and growth rate of word reading predicted growth rate of spelling. In contrast, spelling did not predict word reading. When it comes to reading comprehension and writing, initial status of reading comprehension predicted initial status (0.69), but not linear growth rate, of written comprehension. These results indicate that reading-writing relations are stronger at the lexical level than at the discourse level and may be a unidirectional one from reading to writing at least between Grades 3 and 6. Results are discussed in light of the interactive dynamic literacy model of reading-writing relations, and component skills of reading and writing development. [This article was published in "Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal" (EJ1188173).]

This paper introduces a new observation system that is designed to investigate students' and teachers' talk during literacy instruction, Creating Opportunities to Learn from Text (COLT). Using video-recorded observations of 2nd-3rd grade literacy instruction (N=51 classrooms, 337 students, 151 observations), we found that nine types of student talk ranged from using non-verbal gestures to generating new ideas. The more a student talked, the greater were his/her reading comprehension (RC) gains. Classmate talk also predicted RC outcomes (total effect size=0.27). We found that 11 types of teacher talk ranged from asking simple questions to encouraging students' thinking and reasoning. Teacher talk predicted student talk but did not predict students' RC gains directly. Findings highlight the importance of each student's discourse during literacy instruction, how classmates' talk contributes to the learning environments that each student experiences, and how this affects RC gains, with implications for improving the effectiveness of literacy instruction.

We modeled word reading growth in typically developing (n = 118) and children with dyslexia (n = 20), Grades 2-5, across multiple exposures to 30 words. We explored the facilitative versus inhibitory effects of exposures to differential mixes of words that support high- versus low-frequency vowel pronunciations. One training corpus contained a ratio of 80%-20% high- to low-frequency pronunciations (e.g., for "ea"; 80% "ea" pronounced as /i/ as in "bead" and 20% "ea" pronounced /[epsilon]/ as in "dead"), whereas the other consisted of a ratio of 20%-80%. We also modeled accuracy at the final exposure for a subset of 12 shared words across conditions using item-level crossed-random effects models with reading skill (i.e., typically developing vs. dyslexic), condition, word frequency, and vowel pronunciation (i.e., high- vs. low-frequency vowel pronunciation) as predictors in the model. We were particularly interested in the interaction between condition and vowel pronunciation across reading groups. Results suggest typically developing children were influenced by the interaction between condition and vowel pronunciation, suggesting both facilitation and inhibition, whereas children with dyslexia were influenced by condition and vowel pronunciation without an interaction. Results are interpreted within the overfitting model of dyslexia.