Utility of Oral Reading and Retell Fluency in Predicting Proficiency on the Montana Comprehensive Assessment System

The purpose of this study was to document the relationship between two commonly-used indicators of reading proficiency (i.e., Oral Reading Fluency [ORF] and Retell Fluency [RTF]) and two reading outcome tests in the state of Montana. Third and fourth grade students were assessed over 1 school year (2005-2006). Each student was assessed at three time points (fall, winter, and spring) with both the ORF and RTF measures. In addition, students participated in the standard, end-of-year, state comprehensive reading assessment. Both indicators displayed strong correlations with the criterion tests at the end of the school year. RTF added a small portion of unique variance explained to end-of-year outcomes when the raw scores (rather than ratio scores) were used. We highlight the way in which the ORF and RTF measures might be used together as efficient, economical predictors of important reading outcomes. We also provide information regarding the way in which the findings from this study impact special education services in rural settings.