Comparing Brief Reading Fluency Measures with the Reading Tests of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills

Reading fluency is currently a popular focus in public school systems. However, little research has been conducted on various methods of assessing reading fluency. The current study compared scores from two reading fluency measures, the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and the Reading Fluency test of the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement – Third Edition (WJ-III), to reading tests on a nationally normed test of reading achievement, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS). The comparison was conducted on a sample of 86 students across three grade-levels (i.e., first, third and fifth) of elementary-aged students to look for differences across ages. After performing Pearson correlations, results indicated that both the DIBELS and the WJ-III correlated significantly with the ITBS scores at all three grade levels. The findings in this study help provide support for the use of the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency test and the WJ-III Reading Fluency test as valid measures of reading fluency. Furthermore, the results indicate that it is possible to use reading fluency tests such as the DIBELS and the WJ-III to predict the performance on group-administered, nationally normed tests of reading achievement