When Students Perform at the Below Basic Level on the NAEP: What Does It Mean and What Can Educators Do?

According to interpretations of results from the latest oral reading fluency (ORF) study conducted by National Assessment Educational Progress (White et al., 2020), fourth-grade students who score below basic standard require interventions that focus on word recognition, phonological decoding, and fluency. Before such mandates for at middle grades beyond are enacted, available information ORF assessments should be examined view what know they do not know. In this paper, I examine performances level as those used in NAEP/ORF identify students’ strengths challenges. Results analyses address how instruction can best support developing proficiencies required perform successfully silent comprehension tasks. Issues particularly attention design readers mode (silent or oral), text, volume.