Exploring the relationship between early oral reading fluency ability and reading comprehension achievement among an ethnically and racially diverse sample of young learners from low-income families, attending elementary school within a large public school district in southeast Florida is the purpose of this longitudinal study. Although many studies have been conducted to address the relationship between oral reading fluency ability and reading comprehension achievement, most of the existing research failed either to disaggregate the data by demographic subgroups or secure a large enough sample of students to adequately represent the diverse subgroups. The research questions that guided this study were: (a) To what extent does early oral reading fluency ability measured in first, second, or third grade correlate with reading comprehension achievement in third grade? (b) To what extent does the relationship of early oral reading fluency ability and reading comprehension achievement vary by demographic subgroup membership (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status) among a diverse sample of students? A predictive research design using archived secondary data was employed in this nonexperimental quantitative methods study of 1,663 third grade students who attended a cohort of 25 Reading First funded schools. The data analyzed derived from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Oral Reading Fluency (DIBELS ORF) measure administered in first, second, and third grades and the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test of the Sunshine State Standards (FCAT-SSS) Reading administered in third grade. Linear regression analyses between each of the oral reading fluency and reading comprehension measures produced significant positive correlations. Hierarchical regression analyses supported the predictive potential of all three oral reading fluency ability measures toward reading comprehension achievement, with the first grade oral reading fluency ability measure explaining the most significant variance in third grade reading comprehension achievement. Male students produced significant overall differences in variance when compared to female students as did the Other student subgroup (i.e., Asian, Multiracial, and Native American) when compared to Black, White, and Hispanic students. No significant differences in variance were produced between students from low and moderate socioeconomic families. These findings are vital toward adding to the literature of diverse young learners.

While reading behaviors have been studied extensively in L1 reading studies through the use of eye-tracking and L2 reading has been measured through inherently indirect means, there is a relative lack of research done on early and late reading measures of ESL readers. Eye-tracking technology, available to researchers only in the past few decades, has opened the field to a new means of measuring these early and late measures of reading in second language learners. This study investigates the reading behaviors of 34 native Portuguese and Chinese readers who read in both their native languages (L1) and in their second language (L2), which is English. It was found that readers processed their reading differently in response to different text difficulties and varied between the different native languages.

The purpose of this thesis is to look at effective reading instruction and assessment in the early years of education to determine appropriate forms of assessment and practice for identifying struggling readers. Many American students are struggling with reading problems. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 31% of fourth graders in America were reading proficiently in 2005. To determine a potential cause of reading problems, particularly in comprehension, I look at what is considered to be best practice in teaching children to read. I then evaluate how elementary assessment, which relies heavily on fluency, can contribute to an overemphasis of fluency instruction. I argue this overemphasis of fluency instruction and lack of instruction in comprehension could be a cause of students' reading difficulties not being recognized until later grades. To avoid assessing students purely on fluency, I look at other forms of assessment, that include measures of comprehension assessment, which could provide a clearer picture of students' reading proficiency. I then examine intervention programs and practices that may be most appropriate for remediation. I argue interventions are best when they are tailored to the specific needs of the individual student, and so, schools should avoid purchasing packaged programs. Finally, I discuss a need for more research on seeing if there is a causal connection between a shift in practice to include more comprehension instruction in the early elementary years and fewer reading problems in the secondary years. / Urban Education

Community college leaders have spent years trying to improve success rates for students in developmental mathematics (DM) courses, but with little progress. This quantitative study, using a pre-experimental static-group research design, examined if a change in a community college district's policy and practices for student placement into DM courses could improve student success in online DM courses. Bounded rationality theory provided the lens to view how students' decision making is influenced by the lack of timely and appropriate information during the placement process. The study addressed whether a composite placement score, the result of combining the ACCUPLACER placement scores for elementary algebra and reading comprehension, would improve predicting student success in the online DM courses of basic arithmetic and introductory algebra. Logistic regression was used to analyze archival data from a student population of 39,585 students from which 767 participants were identified using a stratified random sampling method. The findings indicated that the composite score was a statistically significant predictor of the likelihood of student success only for the online basic arithmetic course (β = .024, Exp(β) = 1.024, p < .0005), which means the higher the composite placement score, the greater the likelihood of success. Providing DM students with information on reading proficiency's influence can increase student success rates. The social change implications are that when students are placed properly in a DM course they complete the sequence in less time, reach their academic goals sooner, and spend less money. In turn, the community college and local community also benefit.

Submitted by Neusa Fagundes (neusa.fagundes@unioeste.br) on 2018-08-14T18:59:24Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Diana_Bertin2018.pdf: 2996569 bytes, checksum: 2d2e6ad81f8aa5742edf6fc32a89554f (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T18:59:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Diana_Bertin2018.pdf: 2996569 bytes, checksum: 2d2e6ad81f8aa5742edf6fc32a89554f (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-28 / The Avaliação Nacional do Rendimento Escolar – Anresc (National Evaluation of the Education Outcome), known as Prova Brasil, is an instrument that is part of the external evaluations in our country. The aim is to evaluate, through a test, if the students of the 5th and 9th years dominate the basic knowledge expected in Portuguese and Mathematics. I act as a primary school teacher in a municipality in the Western region of Paraná, whose IDEB in 2015 was the best in the State. Thus, aroused our interest regarding looking at the reading proficiency of 5th year students included in IDEB evaluation. Thus, the purpose was to answer the following questions: In what skills do the students that were evaluated by the Prova Brasil/2015 highlighted? Is it possible to (re)evaluate the reading comprehension of the students based on the results of Prova Brasil/2015 using other reading activities, organized with subjective questions? In order to answering these questions, we described as a general objective to identify the reading skills of students of the 6th year, evaluated by the Prova Brasil/2015 when they studied in the 5th year. We initially used data available in the INEP Platform through the returns and the QEdu Networks website. After we look at the results of reading activities that were elaborated based on the descriptors of the Prova Brasil, but organized mostly, with open questions. We applied these activities to 38 students who had good performance in the Prova Brasil/2015. This research is part of Applied Linguistics considering the theoretical assumptions of this area of knowledge. It include a qualitative interpretative basis, of an ethnographic nature, which is configured as a case study. Theoretically, in order to reflect on reading and its different conceptions we considered Solé (1998), Rojo (2002) Bakhtin (2003), Geraldi (1997), Martins (2006), Menegassi (2010a, 2010b, 2010c), Costa-Hübes (2015) and others authors. We also resorted to researchers such as Fuza (2010), Hoppe and Costa-Hübes (2013), Casaril (2014), Costa-Hübes (2015) and others that they approached Prova Brasil and its descriptors and still Solé (1998) and Menegassi (2010a) which address questions about assessment in reading. This study gave us a better understanding of the descriptors contemplated by the Reference Matrices of Portuguese Language (MRLP) (BRASIL, 2011), how they evaluate the students' reading proficiency allowing us to recognize in which skills the students evaluated by the Prova Brasil/2015 demonstrated satisfactory performance, according to the MRLP assumptions. The results also confirmed that it is possible to (re)evaluate these skills through another instrument and that they need to be consolidated, regardless of the methodology used in the evaluation. However, the research with the reading contents provided by the descriptors, alone, is not enough to guarantee the reading proficiency of the student. We need to go further and broaden this approach so that they can read beyond the text and understand that the contextual elements have a direct bearing on the constitution of text sense. / A Avaliação Nacional do Rendimento Escolar – Anresc (Prova Brasil) é um instrumento que faz parte das avaliações externas em nosso país, cujo objetivo é avaliar, por meio de um teste, se os alunos do 5º e do 9º anos dominam os conhecimentos básicos que se esperam em Português e Matemática. Por atuarmos como professora do ensino fundamental em um município da região Oeste do Paraná, cujo IDEB, em 2015, foi o melhor do Estado, despertou-nos o interesse de, nesta pesquisa, olharmos para a proficiência leitora de alunos do 5º ano que participaram dessa avaliação. Assim, o propósito é responder aos seguintes questionamentos: Em quais habilidades se destacam os alunos que foram avaliados pela Prova Brasil/2015? É possível (re)avaliar a compreensão leitora dos alunos a partir dos resultados aferidos pela Prova Brasil/2015, recorrendo a outras atividades de leitura, organizadas com questões subjetivas? Na perspectiva de responder a tais questionamentos, traçamos, como objetivo geral, identificar as habilidades de leitura de alunos do 6º Ano, avaliados pela Prova Brasil/2015 quando estudavam no 5º Ano. Para atingir o proposto, recorremos, inicialmente, a dados disponibilizados na Plataforma do INEP, através das devolutivas, e à página do QEdu Redes. Posteriormente olhamos para os resultados de atividades de leitura que foram elaboradas com base nos descritores da Prova Brasil, porém organizada, em sua maioria, com questões abertas. Aplicamos essas atividades a 38 alunos que apresentaram um bom desempenho na Prova Brasil de 2015. Trata-se, assim, de uma pesquisa que se inscreve na Linguística Aplicada, observando os pressupostos teóricos dessa área de conhecimento; de base qualitativa interpretativista, de cunho etnográfico, e se configura como um estudo de caso. Teoricamente, para refletir sobre a leitura e suas diferentes concepções, amparamo-nos em Solé (1998), Rojo (2002) Bakhtin (2003), Geraldi (1997), Martins (2006), Menegassi (2010a, 2010b, 2010c), Costa-Hübes (2015) e outros. Recorremos ainda a pesquisadores como Fuza (2010), Hoppe e Costa-Hübes (2013), Casaril (2014), Costa-Hübes (2015) e outros que abordam a Prova Brasil e seus descritores e ainda Solé (1998) e Menegassi (2010a) que abordam questões sobre a Avaliação em leitura. Esse estudo nos propiciou maior compreensão dos descritores contemplados pelas Matrizes de Referência de Língua Portuguesa (MRLP) (BRASIL, 2011), de como eles avaliam a proficiência leitora dos estudantes e possibilitou-nos reconhecer em quais habilidades os alunos avaliados pela Prova Brasil/2015 demonstraram desempenho satisfatório, conforme pressupostos das MRLP. Os resultados confirmaram também que é possível sim (re)avaliar essas habilidades por meio de outro instrumento e que elas precisam ser consolidadas, independente da metodologia empregada na avaliação. Todavia, o trabalho com os conteúdos de leitura previstos pelos descritores, apenas, não basta para garantir a proficiência em leitura do aluno; precisamos ir além, ampliar essa abordagem, de modo que consigam ler para além do texto e compreender que os elementos contextuais incidem diretamente na constituição do(s) sentido(s) do texto.

L2 proficiency gains during study abroad vary widely across individuals and programs, and much of the research in the study abroad literature attempts to identify the causes of this variance. Social network data has proven useful in explaining some of the variance in oral proficiency gains (Baker-Smemoe, Dewey, Bown, & Martinsen, 2014; Isabelli-García, 2006), and the current study builds on those findings by applying the same methodology to listening and reading proficiency in addition to speaking. Proficiency gains in listening, reading, and speaking were measured for 17 students from a US university studying abroad in Nanjing, China for one semester. Social network measures focused on interaction with native speakers (NS) were taken at the beginning, middle, and end of the study abroad program using the Study Abroad Social Interaction Questionnaire. Linear regression analyses showed that social network measures accounted for nearly 46% of the variance in listening gains, nearly 82% of the variance in reading gains, and nearly 46% of the variance in oral proficiency gains. These findings make a strong case for applying social network methods to understand listening and reading proficiency gains in study abroad.

In the United States, educators have struggled with low student achievement in reading proficiency, which affects student success in school and leads to higher dropout rates. To address low reading proficiency scores, a local charter high school implemented the myON'reader program. The myON reader program is an electronic library that allows students to choose their own reading based on their reading level and interest. The program tracks students' reading habits and level of reading, so teachers can determine students' progress. Guided by self-directed learning and social constructivism, the purpose of this study was to review available data to determine if the program increased students' reading assessment scores. This study used a mixed-methods design and 3 sets of data: a reading assessment (n = 39), the myON'reader program itself (n = 39), and a semi-structured interview (n = 2). A paired-samples t test determined a statistically significant difference between pretest and posttest data in assessments of students using the myON'reader program. Pearson's correlation coefficient determined a statistically significant correlation between the difference in the reading test scores and hours the students read, as well as a statistically significant correlation between reading test scores and Lexile level of reading. Finally, a semi-structured interview was conducted to determine the teachers' opinions of the program providing additional data for triangulation. The interview was recorded, transcribed, and coded to determine common themes. The positive social change implications included the improvement of student reading ability at the local charter high school, which over time will develop students better prepared for success.

This thesis investigates individual differences and their impact on reading proficiency using different measures of proficiency, a variety of data collection and statistical methods, and different populations. The goal was to examine the impact that individual differences in certain reading-related skills and cognitive abilities have on reading proficiency and how these differences interact. Through three key studies that make up this thesis, several important discoveries and contributions were made to the field. Chapter 2 introduces an easy-to-use application for measuring cloze probability. ‘ClozApp’, was created and made publicly available, along with a user manual and sample code for programming. Chapter 3 contributed through the development of a novel statistical method used to analyze variance between populations with different linguistic backgrounds. This method was used to demonstrate how an individual’s linguistic background (i.e., whether they were first- or second-language speakers of English) impacted how individual differences in reading skills influence their reading fluency, as indicated through their eye-movements. This statistical prediction method is open source and was made widely available for use along with sample data and code. In Chapter 4, a new connection was found between two important cognitive factors that are well-known in the reading literature: statistical learning and motivation. Using mediation analyses, this project discovered an interaction between these factors that further highlights the ways they impact reading proficiency. This thesis demonstrates a comprehensive approach to investigating individual differences in reading proficiency in the following ways: (i) both reading fluency and comprehension were investigated as measures of reading proficiency, (ii) data collection included a variety of reading-related skills, cognitive abilities, and group differences, and (iii) unique statistical analysis methods were utilized to investigate both individual and group differences. This thesis highlights important new discoveries and makes significant lasting contributions to the field of reading research. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates how individual differences influence reading proficiency. Specifically, it asks how the ways in which people differ on certain reading-related skills and cognitive abilities can determine how well they read. Using different measures of proficiency, a variety of data collection and statistical methods, and looking across different populations, the goal of this thesis was to examine the ways in which people differ in these skills and abilities, how these differences interact, and the resulting impact on reading proficiency. This thesis resulted in three significant contributions to the field. First, it made available a new application for collecting data on an important variable in reading research – cloze probability. In addition, it culminated in the development of a novel statistical method that demonstrates how an individual’s linguistic background can influence their reading fluency. Finally, a new connection was found between two important cognitive factors that interact to influence reading comprehension.

Despite educational reforms, the annual results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress continue to indicate that the majority of American fourth-graders struggle to master the crucial skill of reading. In the last decade, the percentage of students who read at or above a proficient level hovers around 30 percent, which draws attention to the fact that the academic institutions may not be fully to blame for the decline of reading competency (NAEP, 2011). The real reason for the incompetency could be attributed to the amount of time that children spend reading as average fourth-graders spend less than two hours a week reading (Juster, Ono, & Stafford, 2004, p. 11). This Digital Generation lives in a world full of distractions in which reading cannot compete. Although the American educational system is stressing reading instruction, children are not putting what they are learning into practice outside of school. Instead of reading, children immerse themselves into the world of interactive digital media and electronic devices. If children do not increase the time they spend reading, their proficiency will not improve. To revive reading within the Digital Generation, authors of children’s literature may need to reevaluate their role in the literacy problem because their traditional print-form content appears to be unsuccessful in reaching their young audience. To create reading material that children are eager to read, authors need to produce content in a format that will entice a response from the newest generation. One way children’s authors can accomplish this is by publishing transmedia storytelling ecosystems. By combining storytelling with digital media to meet the modern literary needs of today's children reading proficiency should begin to improve, along with a renewed interest in literature. This research provides insight into today’s “digital children” and suggests a methodology for creating transmedia literature using the Adobe® Digital Publishing Suite.

This study intends to find out the possible effects of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategy instruction at awareness-raising level on reading proficiency and strategy use. In the study both qualitative and quantitative data were utilized. The relevant data were obtained by means of think-aloud protocols, semi-structured interviews, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning &ndash / SILL- (Oxford, 1990), learning diaries and the reading scores of students on a proficiency exam (COPE). A total of 24 students studying at Bilkent University School of English Language were involved in the study. The scores of the students who received the strategy instruction on the reading paper of COPE, and the scores of the students who were not subject to any strategy instruction were used to run a t-test so as to reveal whether there was a significant difference between these two sets of scores. The data that came from the think-aloud protocols, semi-structured interviews and learning diaries were analyzed so as to trace the type of strategies employed by the students and the frequency with which they were employed. The results did not indicate a statistically significant difference. It was also discovered that all students involved in the study had a tendency to use more cognitive strategies than metacognitive ones. The cognitive strategies were more varied with the group of students who received the strategy instruction.