Preferred Name

Cara McQuaid

Date of Graduation

8-13-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Educational Specialist (EdS)

Department

Department of Graduate Psychology

Advisor(s)

Tiffany Hornsby

Deborah Kipps-Vaughan

Ashton Trice

Kristi Estep

Abstract

Research on reading performance in both public and private schools in the United States notes that students’ reading skills are declining compared to previous years, and there is a need for effective identification of skills and interventions to bridge the gap between current performance and the target skill level. While some research on reading instruction and reading skills primarily focuses on initial skills such as phonological awareness only in early grades, other research suggests that as reading skills develop and become more advanced, foundational skills such as phonological awareness also develop.

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether a higher-level phonological awareness skill, called phonemic proficiency, is still positively correlated with a higher-level reading skill in secondary education. The results found a moderate, positive relationship between total phonemic awareness and oral reading accuracy, and phonemic proficiency, continue to be moderately and positively correlated with oral reading fluency in secondary grades. These results support the information of the science of reading and research related to the phonemic proficiency hypothesis. Implications for future research and school psychology practice are discussed.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.