This study investigated the utility of two early literacy screening measures, Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) and Word Identification Fluency (WIF), with a sample of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Included within the overall sample of 196 first grade students were 106 Spanish-speaking ELLs at varying levels of English proficiency. Screening measures were administered in the winter of first grade, and used to predict oral reading fluency (ORF) at the end of the school year. Results indicated that WIF accounted for substantial variance in ORF above and beyond that accounted for by NWF. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed that WIF was superior to NWF in terms of classification accuracy. Differences in predicting ORF for ELLs at low, moderate, and high levels of English proficiency were observed on the NWF measure. Study outcomes provide support for WIF as an early literacy screener within early prevention and intervention frameworks.

This study examined the extent to which initial performance, and growth on an experimental CBM word problem solving fluency measure (WPSF) were predictive of student performance on criterion measures of math problem solving. In addition, the extent to which WPSF could correctly classify students as a function of risk status was evaluated. Alternate forms of the WPSF measure were administered to 142 third grade students, along with multiple criterion measures of math problem solving. Results indicate that WPSF demonstrated moderate criterion validity, and was able to discriminate between students that were at-risk and not at-risk for problem solving difficulties. Implications for assessment practices in mathematics are discussed.