Bilingual Phonological Awareness: Construct Validation in Grade 1 Spanish-Speaking English Learners.

This study investigated the dimensionality of bilingual phonological awareness (PA) in English and Spanish by replicating a kindergarten model in Grade 1, and presents alternatives to modeling clustered data. English and Spanish tasks were analyzed from previously collected samples totaling 1,586 first grade Spanish-speaking English learners. Four distinct approaches to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models were examined: (a) uncentered student-level data, (b) student-level data centered at the classroom means, (c) classroom-level data, and (d) multilevel CFA. Results indicated that while the multilevel CFA provided the most comprehensive view of the data, the multi-level student-level estimates were not appreciably different from estimates based on student-level data centered at the classroom means, and multi-level classroom-level estimates were comparable to estimates based on the analysis of classroom means. Importantly, English and Spanish PA were statistically separable at the student-level, but minimally distinct (r = .86) and slightly less correlated than what has been reported for kindergarten (r = .93). At the classroom level, the correlation was moderate (r = .51), and substantially reduced compared to kindergarten (r = .83). The distinction at the classroom-level between kindergarten and Grade 1 implies that instruction differentiates the abilities across languages at the classroom-level, but less so at the student-level.

IQ-Achievement Discrepancy for Identification of Disabilities in Spanish-speaking English Learners.

This article examines the validity of IQ-achievement discrepancy and low achievement as criteria for the identification of disabilities in Spanish-speaking English-language learners (ELs) and the factors that moderate the validity of these approaches as bases for identification. While there has been a long history of examining the validity of different approaches to disability identification in monolinguals, there are no systematic approaches taken for ELs. Data from Grades 1 and 2 of a large longitudinal data set consisting of young Spanish-speaking students attending schools in the United States were used to empirically examine criteria for disability identification among language minority children-one of the first large-scale attempts. Findings indicated significant overidentification when the language of assessment was not matched to the language of the instruction, although the effects varied predictably over time and by language of instruction. Validation of classifications using measures external to the classification found that low achieving and discrepant children differ from typically developing children, and from one another in predictable ways based on differences in IQ. The study highlights the importance of taking into account the language of instruction and the severity of the cut-off to reduce misidentification of typically developing children.

Speaking and Reading in Two Languages: On the Identification of Reading and Language Disabilities in Spanish-Speaking English Learners.

Articles in this issue examine (1) the primary sources of variability in reading and language achievement among Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) in the United States, (2) the extent to which poor performance at the end of grade 2 is identifiable in developmental trajectories beginning in kindergarten, (3) the relations among core reading constructs of phonological awareness and decoding in both English and Spanish and the factors that affect their relationship, (4) the performance of different approaches to identification and the factors that influence how well they work, as well as (5) the growing literature focused on intervention for reading problems in this population. This article examines the literature on language minority students and disability identification and analyzes a large-scale longitudinal dataset (>4,000 ELs; >15,000 observations) to systematically characterize and describe the oral language and reading development of Spanish-speaking children designated as ELs from kindergarten to second grade, considering a range of factors that may potentially contribute to that characterization and its relation to academic performance. This systematic characterization should facilitate the development of an empirical basis for a theoretically grounded framework of typical development in ELs in order to more precisely identify those children with language and learning disabilities.

Visual-motor integration skills: accuracy of predicting reading.

PURPOSE: This article investigated the contribution of visual-motor integration (VMI) to reading ability when known predictors of later reading outcomes were also present in the data analysis. METHODS: Participants included 778 first and second grade students from a large diverse urban district in Texas. The data were analyzed using multiple regression models with a forced entry of predictors for each regression model, and each model was run separately for each outcome. RESULTS: The results indicate that VMI drops out of the prediction models once more reading- and language-specific skills are introduced. CONCLUSIONS: Although VMI skills make a statistically significant contribution in some aspects of the regression model, the reduction in contribution reduces the predictive validity of VMI skills. Therefore, a VMI skill measure will not sufficiently determine if a child has a reading disability.

Developmental changes in reading do not alter the development of visual processing skills: an application of explanatory item response models in grades K-2.

Visual processing has been widely studied in regard to its impact on a students' ability to read. A less researched area is the role of reading in the development of visual processing skills. A cohort-sequential, accelerated-longitudinal design was utilized with 932 kindergarten, first, and second grade students to examine the impact of reading acquisition on the processing of various types of visual discrimination and visual motor test items. Students were assessed four times per year on a variety of reading measures and reading precursors and two popular measures of visual processing over a 3-year period. Explanatory item response models were used to examine the roles of person and item characteristics on changes in visual processing abilities and changes in item difficulties over time. Results showed different developmental patterns for five types of visual processing test items, but most importantly failed to show consistent effects of learning to read on changes in item difficulty. Thus, the present study failed to find support for the hypothesis that learning to read alters performance on measures of visual processing. Rather, visual processing and reading ability improved together over time with no evidence to suggest cross-domain influences from reading to visual processing. Results are discussed in the context of developmental theories of visual processing and brain-based research on the role of visual skills in learning to read.

Form effects on the estimation of students' oral reading fluency using DIBELS.

This study examined the effects of passage and presentation order on progress monitoring assessments of oral reading fluency in 134 second grade students. The students were randomly assigned to read six one-minute passages in one of six fixed orders over a seven week period. The passages had been developed to be comparable based on readability formulas. Estimates of oral reading fluency varied across the six stories (67.9 to 93.9), but not as a function of presentation order. These passage effects altered the shape of growth trajectories and affected estimates of linear growth rates, but were shown to be removed when forms were equated. Explicit equating is essential to the development of equivalent forms, which can vary in difficulty despite high correlations across forms and apparent equivalence through readability indices.