Subgroups of adult basic education learners with different profiles of reading skills

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of adult basic education (ABE) learners with different profiles of skills in the core reading components of decoding, word recognition, spelling, fluency, and comprehension. The analysis uses factor scores of those 5 reading components from on a prior investigation of the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills (MacArthur, Konold, Glutting, & Alamprese, 2010). In that investigation, confirmatory factor analysis found that a model with those 5 factors fit the data best and fit equally well for native and non-native English speakers. The study included 486 students, 334 born or educated in the United States (native) and 152 not born nor educated in the US (non-native) but who spoke English well enough to participate in English reading classes. The cluster analysis found an 8-cluster solution with good internal cohesion, external isolation, and replicability across subsamples. Of the 8 subgroups, 4 had relatively flat profiles (range of mean scores across factors < 0.5 SD), 2 had higher comprehension than decoding, and 2 had higher decoding than comprehension. Profiles were consistent with expectations regarding demographic factors. Non-native speakers were overrepresented in subgroups with relatively higher decoding and underrepresented in subgroups with relatively higher comprehension. Adults with self-reported learning disabilities were overrepresented in the lowest performing subgroup. Older adults and men were overrepresented in subgroups with lower performance. The study adds to the limited research on the reading skills of ABE learners and, from the perspective of practice, supports the importance of assessing component skills to plan instruction.

A Quantile Regression Approach to Understanding the Relations Among Morphological Awareness, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension in Adult Basic Education Students

“…This diversity in terms of multiple reading ability levels represented in the same classroom presents a challenge to researchers and practitioners trying to target component skills in order to improve reading comprehension. Recent studies have identified subgroups of adult learners with differential reading profiles based on the core component skills of decoding (Binder & Lee, 2012; MacArthur et al, 2012; Strucker et al, 2007), word recognition (MacArthur et al, 2012; Mellard et al, 2009), fluency (MacArthur et al, 2012; Mellard et al, 2009), spelling (MacArthur et al, 2012), and short-term memory (Strucker et al, 2007). For example, Binder and Lee (2012) detected four reader subgroups based on only two skills: reading comprehension and decoding.…”

Efficacy of Learning Strategies Instruction in Adult Education

“…We included this broad range of NRS levels in the sample based on empirical evidence that functional reading classification assessments (e.g., CASAS, TABE) do not represent adult literacy learners’ instructional needs (Greenberg, Levy, Rasher, Kim, Carter, & Berbaum, 2010; Mellard & Fall, in press; Mellard, Fall & Mark, 2008; Mellard, Woods, & Fall, in press; MacArthur, Konold, Glutting & Alamprese, submitted), and thus learners at various levels might benefit from the interventions.…”

Unraveling the complexity of the relations of metalinguistic skills to word reading with struggling adult readers: Shared, independent, and interactive effects

“…Further obscuring this issue is the large amount of heterogeneity present in samples of adult learners (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, reading levels, and English language status; Lesgold & Welch-Ross, 2012). The current study attempted to curb part of this issue by including only native English speakers; however, some differences have been noted in recent work looking at component skill profiles of struggling adult readers (see Binder & Lee, 2012;MacArthur, Konold, Glutting, & Alamprese, 2012;Mellard, Fall, & Mark, 2009). Future work is needed to assess the robustness of the magnitudes of the relations among metalinguistic skills and word reading and to consider variations by demographic characteristics and reading levels.…”