Using Word Identification Fluency to Monitor First-Grade Reading Development (Report‪)‬

Reading skill is an integral component of academic success. When students fail to develop adequate literacy skills at a young age, they are more likely to struggle throughout their academic careers (Juel, 1988), and it is time-intensive and expensive to remediate their difficulties. Students who are poor readers in the early grades rarely catch up to their peers, even with extra help (Juel, 1988), putting them at risk for learning disabilities (LD) and a variety of negative educational outcomes. Early intervention to prevent development of reading difficulties can be an effective way to ameliorate this problem (Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte, Rose, et al., 1999), and screening and progress monitoring can identify students who require such intervention (Compton, Fuchs, Fuchs, & Bryant, 2006). Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is an assessment tool that provides teachers with reliable and valid information about academic progress (Deno, 1985; Deno, 2003; L. S. Fuchs, Fuchs, & Compton, 2004). When administered periodically, scores can be used to screen students for academic risk; when administered at least monthly, scores can be used to model students' academic development. Originally developed during the 1970s and 1980s to evaluate the effectiveness of special education programs (Brownell, Sindelar, Kiely, & Danielson, 2010; Deno, 1985), CBM is currently used in response to intervention (RTI) models to monitor students' progress in both general and special education (National Center on Response to Intervention, NCRTI, 2010).