Parent engagement has been extensively studied, but more information is needed on how teacher–parent relationships vary for adolescents with different disabilities, varying socioeconomic backgrounds, and racial/ethnic backgrounds. This study investigates associations between teacher–parent relationships, teacher–student relationships, student’s disability, socioeconomic status, racial/ethnic backgrounds, and school performance among 228 high school students. Cross-sectional data were gathered through student and teacher reports. Findings from correlational analyses reveal associations between (a) teacher–student and teacher–parent relationships, (b) teacher–parent relationships and students’ disability type and socioeconomic status, and (c) teacher–parent relationships and students’ grades, behavior, and engagement in school. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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

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

This chapter focuses on three key principles of General Outcome Measurement and data-based decision making that have guided and provided energy for much of the work in early literacy: targeting assessment on indicators of basic skills; focusing on student outcomes; and combining assessment with targeted interventions in a data-based decision making model for the prevention of reading difficulty. It uses a recent analysis of Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) data from the DIBELS Data System to illustrate the application of these principles to early literacy and to highlight the importance of formative assessment for the prevention of reading difficulties.

Abstract. The purpose of this article is to describe the relationship of initial skill and rate of progress on a measure of the alphabetic principle, Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), to first-grade reading outcomes as measured by Oral Reading Fluency (ORF). In addition, we describe a scoring approach to NWF where the predominant decoding strategy (i.e., sound-by-sound, recoding, partial blending, or whole word reading) is also recorded. This study replicates two findings from prior research. First, we found that the effect of NWF gain on ORF outcomes was attenuated for students scoring well above the criterion on NWF. In addition, after controlling for both NWF initial skill and progress over the year, decoding strategy added explanatory value to the prediction of end of first grade ORF outcomes. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice are discussed.

We empirically examined the effect of reading comprehension on passage fluency in English and Spanish in the context of Cummins interdependence hypothesis (1979) and Perfetti's blueprint of the General Components of Reading (1999). Participants were 96 second-grade English learners being taught to read in Spanish and English. Measures in both languages were used to assess word reading, passage fluency, and reading comprehension. Results of structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that (a) Spanish and English passage fluency are both affected by comprehension even after taking word list fluency into account, and (b) the structure of the relation of word reading fluency and reading comprehension to passage fluency appears to be constant across languages. These findings support passage fluency as an indicator of reading proficiency in two alphabetic languages that vary in the transparency of their orthographies. Implications for school psychologists are discussed.

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

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

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

This study examined how the composition of a behavior support team affected use of assessment information in the design of behavior support plans. Specifically, we examined if typical teams designed behavior support plans that differed in (a) technical adequacy and/or (b) contextual fit when (1) teams did not include behavior specialists, (2) teams included behavior specialists, or (3) behavior specialists worked alone. Fifty-eight school personnel on 12 behavior support teams from typical elementary schools and 6 behavior specialists participated in the study. Vignettes describing hypothetical students with functional behavior assessment outcome information were used to develop 36 behavior support plans (12 by teams alone, 12 by specialists alone, and 12 by teams with specialists). Results were assessed by 3 expert behavior analysts for technical adequacy and by all 64 team members for contextual fit. Technical adequacy tended to be rated high if specialists alone or teams including a specialist designed the plan. Contextual fit tended to be rated high when teams alone or teams including a specialist designed the plan. Team members ranked plans developed by the team alone and plans developed by the team with a specialist as preferred for implementation over plans developed by a specialist alone. Implications for the selection of behavior support team membership are discussed.

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

This study involved a longitudinal analysis of academic skills and problem behavior through elementary school. The purposes of the study were (a) to explore the interactions between reading skills and problem behavior, and (b) to determine the value of regular screening assessments in predicting which students would not respond to school-wide behavior support in fifth grade. The participants were elementary school students who entered kindergarten in 1998 and completed fifth grade in a school district with school-wide reading and behavior support systems. Analyses consisted of logistic regressions to predict the number of discipline contacts in fifth grade. Results indicated that both reading and behavior variables (including kindergarten reading variables) significantly predicted the number of discipline referrals received in fifth grade. Results are discussed in terms of determining pathways to problem behavior and implications for a combined approach to academic and behavior problems.

This article presents a fluency-based measure of reading comprehension. A part of the Vitals Indicators of Progress (VIP) system, the measure outlined here represents an alternate form to the retell-fluency measure in the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy System (DIBELS). Measures of retell fluency provide an efficient, fluency-based tool for teachers to use in identifying the handful of children whose oral reading fluency may not adequately represent comprehension. When used in tandem with oral fluency measures, retell measures provide a vehicle for more reliably targeting classroom and school-level resources and for maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of early reading instruction.

Dimensions of instruction and assessment were manipulated within a tertiary prevention to examine their effects on word and text reading development. In this article case studies of two children who demonstrated significant and sustained lack of adequate response to treatment are profiled. Results indicated that reducing group size, using formative assessment, and implementing mastery learning criteria produced positive trends on indicators of oral reading fluency. Students' reading outcomes provide evidence of the importance of timely data-based instructional adjustments.

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