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Abstract:
Meeting the Needs of Failing Readers: Cautions and Considerations for State Policy
by Marsha Riddle Buly and Sheila Valencia, April 2003
Every year thousands of students fail state reading tests and every year policymakers and educators search for strategies to help these students succeed. In this study, we probed beneath students' failing scores on a state reading assessment to investigate the specific reading abilities that may have contributed to student performance. We found that scores on state tests mask distinctive and multifaceted problems having to do with word identification, fluency, and meaning. Our findings are a caution to policymakers and educators who may be tempted to treat the same all students who score "below standard" on statewide reading assessments that now proliferate the education landscape. To do so is to miss the different instructional emphases called for by the underlying skills, strategies, and needs of failing students. Such a practice not only limits individual student progress; it may lead to an oversimplification of reform efforts and evaluation. This report presents reading profiles of failing students and discusses five areas—instruction; multiple indicators; alignment among standards, assessment, and instruction; allocation of resources; and evaluating reform—as potential policy levers for improving student performance in reading.
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