Conclusion: Oral reading fluency or reading aloud from text: An analysis through a unified view of construct validity

Abstract

The chapters in this book focus on the role of fluency in the measurement of performance and progress within different academic areas. In this chapter, we reflect upon the extent to which the construct of fluency plays a role in the validity of the scores generated by measures in academic areas. We focus specifically on the use of fluency measures within a curriculum-based measurement (CBM) approach and describe the ways in which different validity arguments reflect different proposed interpretations and uses. Key to the discussion is whether fluency is the construct being measured or whether it is a construct being used to create measures that produce technically adequate scores. To illustrate, we begin the chapter with a multiple choice question.