Special Studies

Reading is a complex process that is being understood better as it is studied over time. Time constraints and the large numbers of students involved in the NAEP in Reading limit what is included in the assessment. The assessment does not represent completely all aspects of the reading process that are supported by current reading theory and research. The planning committee, however, believed in the importance of addressing as many facets of reading as possible and in acknowledging new and promising approaches to reading assessment. For these reasons, the committees proposed conducting special studies. These studies focus on three important aspects of reading: fluency, reading habits and practices, and metacognition. Two of these -- an oral reading and response study and a gathering of portfolio-like samples of classroom reading activities -- are combined into the Integrated Reading Performance Record (IRPR). The third is a study of the metacognitive strategies students use to comprehend what they read. The IRPR was part of the 1992 assessment, using a sample of fourth-grade students in the national assessment.

Oral Reading and Response Study

Part of the IRPR, the oral reading and response study, addresses concerns that fourth graders may not have the ability to recognize or figure out words as they read. Because the study focuses on actual reading performance, it also explores the potential of NAEP to be based more on student performance.

The importance of reading fluency goes beyond individual word recognition or accurate oral reading. Reading fluency involves the efficient, automatic recognition of words, which permits readers to attend to understanding and thinking about what they are reading. Even the most tentative beginning readers can, at many levels, understand some of what they read. Fluent readers, however, possess facility with written language that makes it possible for them to devote sufficient attention to understanding the text's meaning rather than only identifying the written words. The fluency with which readers can use all of the cues in a text, including syntax, semantics, and phonics, contributes to the effectiveness with which they understand what they read. In this sense, fluency is one means to some important ends.

In the assessment, fluency is determined by an analysis of fourth-grade students' oral reading of a passage from the assessment. The oral reading of a passage was chosen as the vehicle for assessing fluency because passage reading is observable and, as opposed to the reading of isolated words, allows students to strategically use their full range of text-processing skills.

Students are asked to read orally and respond to a passage they have read silently and answered questions about as a part of the regular assessment. An analysis is made of their oral reading fluency by looking for evidence of their use of phonics, sight vocabulary, semantics, and language structure. The relation of fluency to comprehension is also examined. The students' oral responses are related to their written responses to the passage. Because individual readers are asked to respond orally to the same questions they responded to in writing on the main assessment, examination of whether responses are similar in both modes is possible. It permits a consideration of the degree to which performance on the open-ended written questions might be confounded with students' writing abilities.

The purpose of the fourth-grade oral reading study is to pilot and refine the methodology and determine the usefulness of the results. A decision can then be made about whether to include examination of oral fluency on future assessments and possibly to extend it to other grade levels.

Portfolio Study

Portfolio assessment has engaged the interest of practitioners and policymakers as a means of documenting literacy performance in the day-to-day context of classroom life. Some portfolio components are included in the IRPR, but the set of components is modest and does not represent a complete portfolio. However, given the high level of interest in this approach to literacy assessment and the potential value of such an approach, it is deemed important to gather some data that might inform future assessment efforts.

The two main purposes of the portfolio study are to gather and analyze examples of classroom work in reading and to interview students about their reading activities both in and out of school. Components of the study include samples of students' daily work such as worksheets, written summaries, flow charts, or answers to open-ended questions. These samples are chosen by teachers, with student participation, and are analyzed to indicate the types of activities teachers are actually using in classrooms and how well students demonstrate in their daily work the types and aspects of reading examined in the assessment. Interviews with students about their reading of self-selected books provide some information about student reading habits and practices.

The portfolio component study can become an important part of NAEP because it opens a window on the classroom. Such a study is valuable because it:

• Provides information on students' self-selected reading outside of school and how their responses to whole books compare with responses to passages on the actual assessment.

• Offers some information about what is actually happening in classrooms during reading instruction.

• Permits examination of the types of reading responses students make on a daily basis.

• Begins to involve teachers directly in the assessment, rather than just in the usual question-and-answer section of a background questionnaire.

• Permits large-scale exploration of an approach to assessment that is gaining support in states and districts throughout the country.

The term metacognition is used to describe the knowledge and strategies that good readers use to monitor their comprehension such as predicting, skimming, and rereading. Research has shown that good readers are strategic. They know about and select strategies and approaches to their reading, and they use these strategies and approaches to help them understand and check their success in accomplishing their purposes for reading. Research has provided a number of insights into what good readers specifically do before, during, and after reading.

Before reading, good readers consider what the text is going to be about, what they already know about the topic and the text genre, how fast or slowly they need to read, and what specifically they are looking for as they read. While reading, good readers ask themselves many questions: Does the meaning they are developing make sense? What might come next? Are they using the right speed? Are they using the right background information? What might they do to understand better? After reading, good readers decide if they have successfully read the text, whether they should go back and examine specific parts of the text, or whether they should reread for different purposes using a different strategy. Throughout the reading process, good readers' decisions about which strategies to apply are guided by an understanding of the purposes and structures of different types of text and by a knowledge of how to construct and examine meaning.

How students use strategies for monitoring their understanding and knowledge about reading is being considered in a separate but related study. The main purpose of the study is to determine efficient and reliable means of assessing students' awareness and use of reading strategies. The study will examine the usefulness of different formats, such as written or oral responses and multiple-choice or open-ended items. It also weighs the effectiveness of certain specific questions such as:

• How did you read the passage above? (Fast, slowly, skimmed it, carefully?) Explain why.

• What especially helped you understand this part of the passage?

• What would help you answer/do this?

• What do you think will come next?

• Was there a place where you stopped to reread? Underline it in the passage.

Information for Education Policymakers

Information useful to education policymakers is obtained from student questionnaires that are part of the NAEP in Reading and from questionnaires to which teachers and principals respond. The data gathered from these questionnaires, as well as those gathered in the portfolio study, give additional information about reading instruction in American schools and about the reading habits and practices of students. Some of this information focuses on topics that policymakers can address, such as access to a library at school or availability of a variety of reading materials in classrooms.

In summary, the NAEP in Reading represents a collaborative effort among educational agencies, educators, and those interested in education to provide relevant and valid information about how well American students read and about factors affecting their performance. To this end, the Framework includes the best approaches possible at this time for gathering information on reading performance and activities related to becoming good readers. The assessment is designed to endorse high standards for student achievement and set forth realistic goals for effective reading literacy in the 21st century. The assessment seeks to advance both reading and its assessment while pointing the way for continued progress in the future.

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