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Micro-Experimental Analysis of the Small-Group Reading Lesson: Social and Cognitive Consequences of Silent Reading.

In their study, "Reliability and validity of curriculum-based informal reading inventories," Fuchs, Fuchs, and Deno (1982) present an interesting paper on a relatively unexamined area. However, the study has several major problems and leaves a number of issues unresolved. Fuchs et al. make the claims that (a) the current practice of developing informal reading inventories (IRIs) from random selections from children's readers is inappropriate, (b) using these for placement decisions will most likely produce inaccurate results, (c) the 95% accuracy criterion seems valid, and (d) nonetheless, the IRI can be used as an effective and efficient placement device following their suggestions. These claims are based on a study in which randomly ordered 100-word passages were read as rapidly as possible in a 60-second period by a selection of students, 41% of whom were enrolled in either special education or Title I programs. Some of our criticisms are supported by a brief questionnaire which we sent to eight elementary school administrators in five states. We asked them to distribute the questionnaires to their teaching staff and received 59 (out of 80) completed questionnaires, some from each site. We would like to raise a few questions first about the internal validity of Fuchs et al.'s study and second, about its external validity.

Peter C. McDermott

Papers

Negotiating a Reading Diagnosis.