In this article, I systematically review evidence on the relations between oral reading fluency (ORF) and reading comprehension (RC) for adolescents with limited reading proficiency (ALRP) in Grades 6 to12. I organized findings from 23 studies into five themes: (a) unclear role of ORF in the simple view of reading model for ALRP, (b) ALRP have distinct reader profiles, (c) ORF consists of more than automaticity, (d) the role of ORF varies, and (e) oral reading automaticity has tenuous predictive value for ALRP. Results suggest that knowledge of an adolescent’s ORF, as commonly defined and assessed, provides helpful information about an adolescent’s reader profile, but is not sufficient to evaluate instructional needs nor measure progress. I conclude the article with a discussion on implications for researchers, assessment developers, practitioners, and school administrators.

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Many students with learning disabilities (LD) do not master basic reading skills, which affects later reading fluency and reading comprehension development. Single-case experimental design (SCED) research yields unique opportunities to better understand which aspects of a basic reading intervention are effective with a particular student, including the individual’s rate of growth, stability, or maintenance of acquired skills, and whether or not modifications need to be made to the intervention under study. In this article, we use a case study illustration to highlight unique considerations for using SCED research to investigate basic reading interventions for students with LD. Finally, we provide a discussion of future directions and a potential shift in SCED methodology that is responsive to the comprehensive and multiple skill nature of reading instruction.

We present results of an evaluation of the first year of a multi-year comprehensive middle school reading program. Four public middle schools in rural Virginia with large populations of students with limited reading proficiency participated in a study to determine the reading program’s impact. We evaluated 235 students with low reading achievement scores, including students with disabilities, to determine reading gains. The multi-year curriculum consisted of multiple components (word-level instruction, comprehension and vocabulary, motivation and engagement, and assessment) and seven related instructional units, each taught using explicit instruction. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the intervention’s effectiveness. Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and comparison conditions on a standardized measure of reading achievement with some scores favoring the experimental condition. Results support, in part, the reading program’s promise to improve middle school students’ reading achievement scores at a level that may narrow the reading achievement gap.

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