PERFORMANCE IN READING FROM CONTENT AREA TEXT AS AN INDICATOR OF ACHIEVEMENT

This study examined the relationship between basic reading literacy an d student academic success, extending the work on curriculum-based mea surement to examine the validity of a simple and direct measure of rea ding proficiency for students at the secondary level. Participants wer e 121 10th-grade students from a rural high school in a small midweste rn community. Samples of student reading were obtained by having stude nts read aloud from multiple English and science textbook passages. In addition, student scores on a standardized reading test were collecte d. The relationships between reading measures and performance on a cla ssroom study task, grade point average, and a variety of achievement t est scores were examined. To investigate differential effects related to content area and achievement levels, data were collected in English and science for low- and high-performing students. Results of correla tional analyses revealed low-moderate to moderately high correlations between reading measures and scores on a classroom study task, grade p oint average, and achievement test performance. Reading aloud from tex t was more strongly related to academic success for students at the lo wer end of the grade-point distribution than for students at the upper end. Recommendations are made for the use of reading aloud measures i n program planning and implementation for students at the secondary le vel.