Reading at the instructional level with children identified as learning disabled: Potential implications for response-to-intervention.

Curriculum-based assessment assesses the match between curriculum and student skill by computing the percentage of known words in a reading task and comparing it to the instructional level criterion of 93% to 97% known. The current study examined the effect of preteaching unknown words to 29 third-grade children identified as learning disabled (LD) to facilitate an instructional level within a third-grade curriculum. Second, the study examined the potential implications for implementing response-to-intervention. Results suggested that children within the treatment condition were more likely to read at the instructional level and demonstrated progress within a local curriculum that significantly exceeded a control group who received guided reading activities. The correlation between number of passages read at the instructional level and reading progress within the curriculum was .80. Finally, 65.5% of the children who received the treatment were identified as responding to treatment, as compared to 27.6% of the control group. Potential implications for practice and suggestions for future research are included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)