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An investigation of the oral reading fluency of grade 4 students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Erica Galbraith
Affiliation:
NSW Department of Education and Training
Mark Clayton*
Affiliation:
Special Education Centre, Macquarie University, NSW
*
Address for correspondence: Dr. Mark Clayton. Macquarie University Special Education Centre. North Ryde, NSW 2109.

Abstract

A curriculum-based one minute oral reading probe was administered to 242 randomly selected, regular Grade 4 students, from 22 Government schools in one large NSW Department of School Education metropolitan school district, to determine reading competence. The results of this easily administered test showed that 22% of students failed to reach 70 CWPM (instructional level) 23% scored 70–100 CWPM, 20% scored 100–119 CWPM and 35% exceeded mastery level, with a score of 120 CWPM or more. It was concluded that the high number, 65%, failing to reach mastery level should be of major concern to district educators and warrants a review of classroom practice in reading instruction with implications for district-wide resource allocation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Australian Association of Special Education 1997

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