Effect of Progress Monitoring on Reading Fluency for High School Students with Disabilities

Abstract

Reading skills are vitally important to have in order to achieve a successful and satisfying life once a person leaves high school. In 2000, 2.8 million students were reported to have a learning disability and 80% of those students had significant reading problems (Snow, Bums & Griffin, 1 998). Not only are these students more likely to drop out of high school but they are also less likely to obtain meaningful employment, seek further education and maintain proper health and child care. With the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and No Child Left Behind there is increased pressure to educate students with disabilities in the regular education environment and pass high stakes testing. At the high school level, this leaves little if any time to offer direct instruction in reading for those who struggle the most. The purpose of this study was to find an effective and efficient way to improve the reading skills, specifically fluency, for students with disabilities in high school while not taking away from their instructional time in the regular education classroom.

In this study an experimental and control group were determined based on the scheduled study halls of 30 ninth and tenth graders in the special education program. All participants were given a pretest to assess their reading fluency levels. The control group then continued with their regular study hall activities for six weeks while the experimental group received a reading fluency intervention. The intervention consisted of daily, one minute, oral reading fluency passages given during their study hall time. The number of words they read correctly in one minute was recorded and at the end of the six week period all participants, experimental and control group, were given a post-test. The results showed an improvement for the experimental group and recommendations and implications are offered for the school where the study took place.