Performance of Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities on Early-Grade Curriculum-Based Measures of Word and Passage Reading Fluency

Alternate assessments have been used for the last 10 years to evaluate schools' efforts to teach children with significant cognitive disabilities. However, few studies have examined the reading skills of children who participate in these assessments. The purpose of this study was to extend understanding of the reading skills of this population by administering early-grade word and passage reading fluency curriculum-based measures to a sample of 7,440 students in Grades 3 through 8 and 11. Overall, the performance on curriculum-based measures and the relationship with alternate assessment performance varied based upon disability, grade, and level of alternate assessment. The authors discuss implications for test developers and teachers along with future directions for research.