Differentiating less-prepared from more-prepared college readers

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to better understand the difficulties faced by underprepared college readers, including those enrolled in Developmental Education (DE) programs. The Reading Systems Framework was used as a theoretical motivation. Participants (n = 258) completed a measure of component reading skills (Study Aid and Reading Assessment, word recognition/decoding, vocabulary, morphology, sentence processing) and a think-aloud measure wherein they produced written responses while reading texts. Responses were scored based on evidence of the use of inference strategies (bridging and elaboration). Cumulative links mixed-effects models were used to assess the extent to which proficiency in component reading skills and DE enrollment were differentially related to the use of inferencing. Results indicated that vocabulary was a positive predictor of bridging and elaboration scores. DE enrollment was a negative predictor of elaboration scores, suggesting that DE readers were less likely to produce elaborations. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and code

The data and associated analysis code are openly available in Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/qms8y/

Ethics approval

All research was approved by an institutional review board and participants completed informed consent forms before participating.

Notes

1. There are DE programs devoted to supporting math as well.

2. Most theories of comprehension do not make specific assumptions about the role of individual differences in inference processing (McNamara & Magliano, 2009).

3. The SARA is previously known as RISE or ReadReady.

Additional information

Funding

The present research was supported by grants from the Institute of Education Sciences [R305F100005 and R305A190522] and U.S. Department of Education [R305A150193 and R305A19006]. All opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and not the funding agencies.