Establishing tentative norms and identifying gender differences in perfomance for a new passage reading test

Abstract

Preliminary norms are reported for primary school students’ oral reading rate on five parallel forms of the Wheldall Assessment of Reading Passages (WARP). Results are based on the testing of over 1000 children in New South Wales schools. Data indicate that children's reading scores (number of words read correctly per minute) increased as a function of age over the school Years 2 to 6, tending to reach a ceiling in Year 6. Gender differences favouring girls were observed at all grade levels. These differences reached statistical significance in Years 4 and 5. It is suggested that the WARP may be a useful instrument for monitoring a key aspect of reading performance (oral reading fluency), particularly with low progress readers, during the primary years.