Using Oral Reading Rate to Predict Student Performance on Statewide Achievement Tests

Abstract

In this study, a curriculum-based measurement (CBM) of reading aloud from narra-tive passages was used to predict performance on statewide achievement tests in reading and math. Scores on multiple-choice reading and math achievement tests were moderately correlated with scores on rate measures during the same year and rate measures administered 1 year previously. The results provide initial support for use of timed oral readings to predict students’performance on statewide achievement tests. Usefulness of CBM in monitoring students ’ progress toward preestablished benchmarks is supported, as well as the stability of the measures over time. Results are interpreted as a new application of research conducted on CBM during the past 2 decades. Current educational reform efforts emphasize increases in student performance as demonstrated by scores on criterion-referenced statewide achievement tests. Of-ten, these tests are administered on an infrequent basis, providing teachers with limited information about students ’ ongoing progress toward mastering academic benchmarks. Furthermore, statewide achievement tests fail to provide teachers with diagnostic information related to student attainment of specific instructional goals. Despite these limitations, data from statewide tests are used to make high-stakes decisions about students ’ academic proficiency. The widespread adoption of statewide tests, as well as the importance placed on test results, makes it imperative that students ’ academic progress be closely moni-tored through the use of other measurement systems for at least four reasons: