#### Adolescent Literacy: Research NEEDS

Despite the significant advances that have been made in our
understanding of the abilities children must acquire to become
successful readers and the conditions under which the necessary skills
are most effectively taught, very little converging evidence addresses
how adolescents learn and how best to teach literacy---reading and
writing---to middle and high school students. We need to know the extent
to which our current evidence about early reading and reading
instruction holds true for older students who fail to acquire the basic
foundational skills for literacy. Why does it seem that learning to read
is more difficult after age 9? How can we best intervene to improve
reading after that age? Which specific abilities and characteristics of
learners are most predictive of successful reading and of reading
difficulties in adolescents? How do we motivate middle and high school
students who have experienced failure in literacy to re-engage in this
all-important learning task?

In March and May 2002, two workshops on Adolescent Literacy were held.
These workshops were co-sponsored by several federal agencies and
professional associations, and brought together researchers,
practitioners, administrators, funders and policy-makers. They included
presentations, discussion panels, audience questions and comments, and
small working groups. The overall goal of both workshops was to assess
the current state of knowledge on adolescent literacy, to develop
recommendations for research, and to articulate research questions that
need to be addressed in order to move the field of adolescent literacy
forward. This document reflects their deliberations.

The workshops included presentations that surveyed current research in
adolescent literacy and identified gaps and areas in need of research.
In the second workshop, examples of instructional models being
implemented in middle and high schools were presented, highlighting the
importance of the development, implementation and evaluation of such
models, and the value of rigorous design in evaluation.

The two workshops made clear that much research is needed in this
under-studied area. Long-term longitudinal and descriptive studies are
needed that trace and define the developmental trajectory of reading and
writing in the adolescent period. Cross-sectional studies may be used to
distinguish skill level of students in different grades. Case studies
may assist in formulating theories that may elucidate the findings from
longitudinal and/or cross-sectional studies. In addition, experimental
and quasi-experimental studies of instructional methods, models for
effective reading instruction delivery in middle and high school, and
specific interventions for struggling readers are needed. Data-mining
may help to circumvent lengthy time frames on longitudinal studies, by
learning what we can from extant datasets and using this information in
the design of longitudinal studies that could thus possibly move more
quickly to answer crucial research questions. Studies that link behavior
and the neurobiological aspects of reading in this age group are needed,
and there is a need for novel uses of designs and methods and for the
development of innovative ways to study this challenging group of
students. The most informative research will link various fields and
disciplines, sharing methods and approaches and bringing multiple
perspectives to bear on these important questions. Researchers must
study students who reflect the demography of the school, district,
state, or nation, and interventions must be tested with diverse groups.

# **Concepts** 

The focus on adolescent literacy raises the question of what is meant by
\"adolescent\" and by \"literacy.\" For purposes of research, a
consensus definition and consistent use of the concept of
\"adolescence\" are needed. In these workshops, adolescence was defined
as the middle and high school period. Clearly investigators should give
specific definitions of adolescence as operationalized in their
research. The concept of literacy generally includes reading and
writing, and the interaction between the two is crucial in studying the
development of literacy in adolescence. It is important to note that
this includes computer and multimedia literacy, since adolescents, like
many other age groups today, may use the computer and multimedia (e.g.
CD-ROMs) for a great deal of their reading and writing.

Key to understanding adolescence are the characteristics of the
preadolescent period and how those affect adolescence. A developmental
description of adolescence and of adolescents\' literacy needs relative
to their personal characteristics is fundamental to conducting research
on adolescent literacy and can be seen as a research topic itself.
During formal schooling in the U.S., there are two significant
transitions---that from elementary school to middle school and that from
middle school to high school. Ideally reading difficulties would be
prevented before children must negotiate these transitions. There is a
need for studies that design, implement and test the effectiveness of
preventive interventions in the pre-adolescent period (i.e. the latter
half of the elementary school years). Meanwhile, there are currently
many children/adolescents for whom intervention during the middle school
and high school years is needed. We need to better understand how these
transitions alter the characteristics of the individual, the problem of
reading difficulties and its sequelae, and possible solutions.

Likewise, literacy is best characterized as a developmental process, and
research is needed to describe that process through the adolescent
years. While there is a need for the design, development and testing of
interventions, there is also a basic need to understand the continued
learning and development that takes place during adolescence in the
areas of reading and writing. The concept of literacy development is
complex because it is intertwined and interactive with the context in
which learning occurs. In addition, literacy abilities vary widely
across segments of the population, such as English-language learners,
average and high achievers, minority students, students with
disabilities, and students living in rural vs. urban areas.

# **The Extent of the Problem** 

Research is needed to provide additional and more detailed data on the
extent of the problem. We know that there are adolescents who have
difficulties reading and writing. We need to know which population
groups are most affected, their sociodemographic characteristics, the
geographical distribution, and how many adolescents have persisting
difficulties and how many have emerging problems. We also need detailed
characterizations of struggling readers and of students who are
performing well, in order to best design optimal programs for all
students and optimal tailored interventions for those with difficulties.
Any such characterizations must also take contextual and environmental
factors into account.

Adolescent Literacy - The Development of Literacy in Middle and High
School

Development is taken as a superordinate principle in organizing this
research agenda. We need to define the typical developmental process,
and collect data on how many students are performing in a manner
inconsistent with it, and what is necessary to alter the process to
provide for more normative progress in the future for these students.
Research is needed to investigate the connections among several basic
dynamic domains or themes that affect the development of adolescent
literacy.

-   Abilities and characteristics of the students

-   Context and environment

-   Outcomes of interest

-   Characteristics of teachers, practices and programs

-   Professional development

Across all of these domains are three integrated elements:

-   Assessment: how to measure what is being observed (includes direct
    observation, self-report, and direct testing of groups and
    individuals),

-   Intervention for creating the outcomes, where intervention might be
    individual remediation, classroom instruction, or restructuring of
    school programs, and

-   Sociocultural issues (including language/dialect and the culture of
    the school and the community).

Two complex overarching questions must be addressed:

1.  What are the characteristics of students, their environments, the
    context in which they receive instruction, and the nature of that
    instruction with regard to reading and writing during adolescence?
    At different developmental levels of literacy? What are the
    interactions, the reciprocal relationships, among these factors?

2.  How do the characteristics of students, their environments, the
    contexts in which they receive instruction, and the nature of that
    instruction with regard to reading and writing during adolescence
    change and develop over the course of adolescence? This is not a
    passive model of change. How do adolescents navigate and work
    through the transitions into and from one level to the next within
    adolescence? What resources do they access, what literacy practices
    do they engage in on their own, and what factors affect, mediate, or
    moderate change?

### 

###  Relevant Research Issues 

**Abilities and characteristics of students.** In describing learners,
researchers should take several factors into consideration. First,
cognition, knowledge, and executive function (self-regulation,
metacognition) must be measured and characterized over time, and should
be considered in designing interventions, as should sociocultural
characteristics. Similarly, research should describe language and
communication characteristics, psychosocial factors (such as identity
and motivation), and sociocultural factors (such as socioeconomic
status, culture, and English as a second language). In addition, because
learning can be constrained by neurobiological factors, it will be
important to study the neurobiological aspects of the learning process
as adolescents advance their reading and writing skills. Research
samples and individuals should be sufficiently well-characterized that
studies can be replicated, and data understood within the broader
context of related research, as well as allow answers to questions
concerning what was learned, who learned it and who did not, and under
which conditions does such learning take place for these students.

-   To what extent does oral language proficiency affect a student's
    ability to learn to read and write? This is important to examine for
    all students, but should also be studied in depth for English
    language learning students. How do these relations differ for
    adolescent students and students in earlier grades?

-   Research on literacy development for English- language learners is
    critical. Consideration must be given to the level of oral
    proficiency -- beginning, intermediate, advanced - and to current
    literacy levels -- from non-reader to proficient reader in the first
    and second languages.

-   What is the role of motivation in learning to read and write? How
    does one instill a sense of confidence and an attitude of
    self-efficacy in the adolescent reader? Does the content of the
    reading material contribute to the motivation level of the
    adolescent? How do the text structures and readability level
    contribute to motivation? Is there a correlation between interest,
    reading performance, and reading comprehension? Good readers do not
    necessarily read for pleasure. To achieve something, it is not
    always necessary to enjoy doing it, but there should be a value to
    the student in the accomplishment. When one achieves, there often is
    an increase in intrinsic motivation. Better self-report measures and
    other kinds of measures (e.g., teacher ratings, observations) are
    needed to assess motivation.

-   Motivation is multifaceted and includes self-efficacy, interest, and
    goals for reading. What is the relationship between \"liking\" to
    read and the \"effort\" expended by the adolescent reader and the
    eventual \"payoff\"? What is the relationship between student
    perception of the importance of reading and writing to student
    performance? How does motivation differ for students in different
    cultures? What are the different motivating factors that must be
    recognized and taken into account in attempting to measure literacy
    skills and develop interventions for linguistically and/or
    culturally different groups of students?

-   What is the role of background knowledge? How and to what extent
    does background knowledge limit the adolescent student's reading
    performance, and what are the most effective and efficient
    remediation approaches? How does background knowledge differ for
    students from different cultural or ethnic groups?

-   To what extent is student interest in the reading material related
    to (a) an increase in the amount of reading students engage in
    and (b) improvement in measured performance in different components
    of reading (e.g., decoding, vocabulary, comprehension)? How can
    student interest be used effectively as part of instructional
    practice? To what extent do motivation and background knowledge
    affect student interest in reading material, and is this amenable to
    intervention?

**Context and Environment.** The school context in general can affect
motivation and learning, as well as how instruction and intervention are
provided. The context in which students are learning must be considered.
Research should examine the context in which adolescents are
functioning, and what should be changed in those contexts to help
students read better.

The school as a learning environment should be studied and factored into
research on adolescent literacy. Environment might include middle and
high school environments, the characteristics of each, the differences
between them, the demands of the middle school and high school learning
environments, the effects these have on student learning and motivation,
and their implications for instruction as well as for teacher
preparation and professional development.

Other environmental factors must also be taken into account, such as
home, after-school activities, peer groups, the neighborhood, and
community. The language spoken in all of these locales is also a crucial
part of the learning environment, and must be considered, as well as the
cultural differences that may exist within schools and communities.

-   How do schools where large numbers of students achieve high levels
    of literacy differ both structurally and functionally from those
    where students do not perform as well? Are there effects of school
    or program design or structure on literacy development?
    Specifically, is there a fit between school characteristics and
    differences in adolescent literacy ability levels and motivation for
    reading and writing?

-   How do the literacy values of the classroom and school affect
    student literacy outcomes? How do literacy values relate to subject
    matter values for teachers and students, and how do these sets of
    values and their relations affect student literacy outcomes?

-   What is the role of classroom composition in affecting student
    literacy outcomes in middle and high school? To what extent does
    instructional group size and composition impact learning?

-   Membership in structured groups is very important in society.
    Because an adolescent\'s values and position on education may be
    strongly influenced by his or her peer social group, the values of
    the group can be key to a student\'s development. Thus, research
    should be done on adolescent social groups, both inside and outside
    of school as they relate to adolescents' literacy development and
    outcomes. Research is needed to examine the role of social groups in
    motivating or affecting a student\'s commitment to learning to read
    and write, and can provide insights into the design and
    implementation of effective interventions. Cultural differences must
    be taken into account in any such research. In addition, this
    research should include students' affect and what the teacher and
    social group are seeking in terms of affective response, and how
    these relate to adolescents' literacy development and outcomes.

-   Identifying the broader context of sociocultural factors that
    influence adolescent literacy is important in determining how best
    to motivate adolescents in mastering the abilities and skills
    necessary for literacy, and in enabling teachers and other
    professionals to teach or intervene effectively. These factors also
    play a crucial role in developing both clinical and research
    measures to assess students\' abilities, in order to identify their
    areas of weakness or difficulty.

**Outcomes of Interest.** Literacy is a broad concept, but it may be
operationally defined in research as the ability of the learner to
perform reading and writing tasks. Outcomes of interest in adolescent
literacy may well include all of the same areas as for younger children,
but the level of complexity of the material and the expertise that will
constitute success for adolescents differs.

-   There is a strong suggestion that by adolescence the roles of
    various components are not the same as in beginning reading. Grades
    4 and 5 are a period of transition. What are the characteristics
    (the profile) of adolescent readers with different levels of skill?
    And how do these characteristics change over time, within the
    various components of literacy?

-   What roles do the core components of reading (phonology, fluency,
    vocabulary, and background)) play in affecting students'
    comprehension and appreciation for written communication? Research
    is needed to define and describe the developmental aspects of the
    core reading components and outcomes for adolescents and how they
    interact within the context of the types of text that students
    encounter, such as newspapers, textbooks, or texts in the work
    environment.

-   One especially important aspect of literacy during adolescence is
    comprehension, which lies at the heart of understanding written
    communication and the development of meaningful interpretations.
    Comprehension involves linguistic processing, communication,
    interpretation, integration, and inference. In both comprehension
    and written expression, literacy tasks are intertwined with multiple
    and incremental levels of basic language knowledge. These levels
    include:

    -   Word level: phonological, orthographic, morphemic, and semantic

    -   Sentence level: literal and idiomatic syntactic understanding
        and formulation

    -   Discourse level: text level comprehension, prior knowledge,
        inference, and discourse

    -   Application level: knowledge integration and modification -- not
        only what is understood but also how it modifies adolescents\'
        behavior and decisions.

Research is needed to document the relationships among these levels and
how

they interact in the ongoing development of reading and writing ability
in

adolescents.

-   Research on reading comprehension should elucidate the relation
    between reading processing and comprehension and how reading
    comprehension differs in process and strategy from listening
    comprehension. How do alternative modes of input and output affect
    comprehension/ composition of text? What strategies are effective
    for improving adolescents' comprehension of text, and their written
    expression? What are the contexts across which specific strategies
    generalize, and which strategies do not generalize well? What
    strategies should adolescents be taught, and why? Under what
    contexts should adolescents be taught to use specific strategies,
    and what can adolescents and their teachers expect will result from
    such instruction? How do students best learn strategies for reading
    comprehension, and what factors influence when, whether, and how
    well they implement those strategies?

-   How are comprehension strategies manifested in reading in content
    areas? Are there core strategies that could be used across types of
    text that would facilitate comprehension? How are these best taught
    or developed in students?

-   The connection between reading and writing must be elucidated in
    order to be applied more systematically and strategically in
    instruction and interventions for struggling readers. The role of
    oral language (listening and speaking) as they interact with reading
    and writing should also be investigated. What are the links between
    oral language knowledge/skills and literacy along the oral-literate
    continuum?

**Characteristics of practices and programs.**

The foundational information that descriptive research will provide on
the developmental changes that occur as adolescents learn to read and
write and to acquire these skills at increasingly complex levels will
become the basis for identifying the specific intervention needs of
struggling adolescent readers and writers, and for the design and
implementation of interventions. As for all other age groups, it is
crucial to determine the most appropriate and effective interventions
for adolescents. Intervention research must answer the question of which
interventions are most effective, for which students, under which
conditions. In determining \"for which students,\" it will be important
to consider students' linguistic and cultural differences in the design,
implementation, and assessment of interventions' effectiveness. These
interventions are no less important than interventions for any other age
group, and are possibly even more complex for adolescents who are
experiencing peer pressure and neurobiologic changes, and whose
motivation and self-image may have already suffered from failure to
achieve mastery in literacy. There is also a need to more fully
understand and address the literacy instruction and intervention needs
of students with various types of disabilities, both learning
disabilities (reading and other learning areas) and other disabilities
(including those with significant cognitive, motor, or communication
needs) that can interfere with the process of developing reading and
writing abilities.

Issues of scalability and sustainability should be considered when
instructions/interventions are conceptualized. That is, we need to
design interventions that inherently contain the attributes that would
facilitate their being taken to scale. Much of what researchers develop
may be highly effective in a research setting but too cumbersome or
difficult to implement in the real world. If our intent is to have all
students taught with scientifically based instruction, then it is
imperative that our instructional and intervention practices be in a
form that can be brought to scale. One such bringing to scale, for
classroom instruction, may be through the development of instructional
models or curricula, such as those presented at the second Adolescent
Literacy workshop. Data should be gathered that includes careful sample
characterization so that we can learn which models work better for which
students, classrooms or schools.

In order to best understand the setting and conditions under which
students learn, researchers must be in the schools and classrooms. The
input of teachers who interact with these students on a daily basis can
provide information to help inform the design, implementation, and
ultimate success of research efforts. The development of strong
cooperative relationships with teachers and education administrators is
important to foundation research conducted in schools, as well as to the
scaling up of instructional and intervention research in schools.

Important questions to answer regarding instruction and intervention
that were raised at the workshops include the following:

-   How well does research on younger learners apply to adolescents? How
    much of what we know about effective instruction and intervention
    can be used in developing and testing instruction and interventions
    for middle or high school students?

-   What interventions and practices are currently used, and how are
    they related to achievement? To what extent do these interventions
    affect student motivation, and to what extent are the effects on
    achievement mediated or moderated by effects on motivation? What are
    the instructional and environmental characteristics of classrooms in
    which all students have productive, manageable, and meaningful
    reading and writing experiences?

-   What structural elements (e.g., scheduling, grouping configurations,
    level of teacher support) in middle and high school support
    successful implementation of reading and writing strategies?

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   What does theory posit about areas to target in intervention and
    instruction for fluency, comprehension, writing, and/or spelling? Is
    there a critical period for learning to read, spell, etc.?

-   How do teachers\' assessments of and instructional decisions about
    individual students influence the literacy development of individual
    students?

-   There is a direct interaction between writing and reading and
    derivational, morphological knowledge in spelling. How should
    instruction and intervention techniques for literacy address both
    writing and reading? What is the role of text format, rhetorical
    characteristics, and derivational morphology in developing literacy?

-   How can the research-based information on teachers and instruction
    be transferred to classroom practice and the development of new
    materials? How can instructional practices that have been shown to
    be effective for certain groups be scaled up for use with larger and
    more diverse groups of students? What are the conditions under which
    such scale-up can be implemented without losing fidelity such that
    the effectiveness of the instructional methods is not compromised?

-   What should be in an intervention plan? From a theoretical
    understanding of student needs, what interventions will be most
    effective for which learners? Are different intervention strategies
    needed for particular subgroups, especially students who are
    English-language learners and those with a range of disabilities?

-   How is reading textbooks similar to and different from reading other
    texts? Are there alternatives to textbooks? Are there alternatives
    to having all students reading the same text? How do teachers use
    different types of text to supplement their teaching strategies?
    What types of support do teachers need to be effective in using a
    diversity of texts in their classrooms? How accessible is text to
    special populations where accommodations are needed?

-   How do teachers and students use text and how do they communicate
    teacher-to-student and student-to-teacher about text? To what extent
    and how do students communicate with one another about texts, and to
    what extent do these communications affect students motivation to
    engage in literacy, and affect literacy outcomes? How can texts be
    better designed to facilitate the development of higher level
    literacy abilities? What are the optimal text and/or document
    characteristics for different content areas? Is there a set of core
    text characteristics that is common across content areas? How can we
    optimize the interaction between instructional approach and text
    characteristics, and what types of training would best prepare
    teachers to effectively implement instruction with different types
    of text/documents?

-   Computers and multimedia technology play an important role in
    adolescent literacy. Most adolescents will do a great deal of their
    writing and reading on computers, and will read a large amount of
    text in multimedia format. Characterizing the technological learning
    environment and its utility in motivating, instructing, assessing,
    and intervening with adolescent readers and writers is an important
    research aim. What is the role of technology in reading and writing?
    How can technology tools be used to mirror and support literacy
    instruction? How are technology tools effectively integrated into
    the literacy curriculum? Which tools are best suited to different
    subgroups of adolescent learners? Which tools assist students in
    self-regulating reading and writing processes at the appropriate
    times and at the appropriate levels? How do computer-based factors
    such as ease of use, learnability, physical access, and appeal
    impact the literacy learning experience for various subgroups of
    students? How can these tools be used to facilitate the reading and
    writing connection?

## Teacher Preparation and professional development

The development of a science of instruction is crucial to adolescents\'
success in developing literacy. The content, design, implementation, and
effectiveness of teacher pre-service education and in-service continuing
education have not been adequately researched. The development of the
teacher over time has not been rigorously examined, and it is generally
the case that high school content teachers receive little or no training
in how to teach literacy. It is not clear how or how often pre-service
education incorporates the findings from current research. Research is
needed that follows teachers in classrooms, assesses student outcomes,
relates these to teachers\' background, and provides a profile of
teachers and their needs.

-   What are the most important components of teacher preparation? To
    the extent that these are known, to what extent are they part of
    programs of teacher preparation or professional development for
    middle or high school teachers? What do prospective and current
    teachers need to know and be able to do to deliver effective,
    high-quality literacy instruction to adolescents? (For example, to
    be successful, does a teacher need to know about learner
    characteristics and learning environments?) What is the role of the
    university in professional development in creating a continuum of
    instruction for teachers?

-   How do teachers learn new strategies? For how long after an initial
    gain or change in instructional behavior do teachers maintain that
    behavior? (There is preliminary evidence that if teachers change
    their behavior, student outcomes improve, but if the teachers revert
    to old teaching habits, student performance declines. Replication
    and more in-depth investigation are needed on these findings.)

-   How can different approaches and supports to secondary teacher
    planning and decision making related to promoting literacy across
    the secondary curriculum increase adolescent learning for all
    students?

-   What is the role of professional development for reading instruction
    across disciplines? How can literacy instruction be effectively
    integrated into the teaching of content, and what are the
    characteristics of exemplary teachers of content area literacy?
    (Middle school teachers tend to be developmentally oriented while
    high school subject area teachers tend not to go beyond the
    content.) How can content teachers accommodate the wide range of
    cultural and knowledge abilities of the individual students
    (including both subject area and methods)?

-   More discourse is needed between researchers and practitioners. Do
    students have specific literacy instructional needs within content
    areas? How does the presentation of knowledge differ across content
    areas, such as math or history? Are there specific differences that
    might help to inform both instruction and intervention? What effects
    do teacher inquiry and decision making have on student engagement
    and achievement?

-   Should some aspects of reading and writing be taught by content area
    teachers, and if so how should those teachers be prepared? What is
    needed in professional development and how can that best be
    delivered? What combination of professional development
    opportunities is most effective?

-   How can secondary teachers' values and beliefs about their
    instructional role, student learning, student literacy, and the
    adolescent experience be aligned in ways that support positive
    literacy learning for their students?

-   What are the characteristics of exemplary teachers? How do they
    support literacy in their classrooms? What are they doing? How can
    other teachers be motivated to do what these effective teachers are
    doing? Which students are the exemplary teachers helping?

-   What training is required for teachers depends not only on what
    students are being taught but also on who the students are. What do
    teachers need to know and be able to do to successfully teach
    literacy when English is not the native language of the student,
    and/or when many languages are represented within the classroom, and
    which teachers might most benefit from training in English as a
    Second Language (ESL) or other specific instructional approaches?

-   What are the optimal methods of teaching literacy to students whose
    first language is not English? What techniques are effective with a
    group of students whose first language is the same (e.g. Spanish)
    and what techniques are effective with a group of English language
    learning students who have different first languages? Is it more
    effective to teach struggling adolescent readers to read in their
    native language first and then to transition them to English? How do
    adolescent English language learners access/acquire literacy in the
    content areas? How do we teach students who are both limited in
    their English proficiency and have learning disabilities?

In addition to describing teachers and their full preparation, research
should also describe the role, background, and information needs of
others involved in helping adolescents become literate (e.g., speech
language pathologists, community workers, parents).

-   How do others involved in literacy education develop the necessary
    knowledge and skills to support effective literacy in adolescent and
    pre-adolescent students? What knowledge is necessary for each group?

## Assessment Methods and Measures 

In addition to asking appropriate questions and applying appropriate
research design and methods, researchers must have instruments for
assessing the constructs under study that will lead to valid and
reliable inferences. Reading and writing are developmental processes and
assessment methods are needed to find out how children are progressing
along the continuum. Workshop participants suggested the need for many
different types of measures. However, any research agenda in assessment
must examine the extent to which it is actually necessary to use
different kinds of assessments. What do we learn from one that we do not
learn from another? To what extent do results generalize from one kind
of assessment to another with respect to adolescent literacy
development? Whether in fact all these different types of measures are
needed, and would serve useful purposes, are empirical questions that
merit investigation, and good theory about the cognitive processes
involved in different approaches to assessment and assessments using
different kinds of text will help us to develop theories about
generalizability as it relates to the assessment of literacy in
adolescents.

With this in mind, the following are the major points raised by workshop
participants regarding assessment are presented for consideration:

-   Participants in the workshop made the points that psychometric
    assessments of student performance are needed, including criterion
    referenced measures. Students and teachers need feedback about how
    well students are doing so that teachers can change instructional
    methods to meet student learning needs. Spelling and reading
    comprehension present special challenges because of the complexity
    of the behaviors of interest, the different values that various
    constituencies place on different aspects of assessment, and the
    lack of consensus around how best to measure these behaviors.

-   Participants also stated that assessment methods should be sensitive
    to increasing and changing abilities and needs, and special
    consideration must be given to appropriate measures for
    English-language learners and other subgroups. Moreover, assessment
    should include a range of language literacy abilities, including
    narrative and expository knowledge, comprehension, decoding, and
    inferencing. Timed measures (speed of response) reveal many
    differences among groups of readers. There are also different
    pathways in language development. Studies are needed to clarify the
    nature of the interconnections among knowledge about language, e.g.,
    syntax, vocabulary, morphology, and reading skill; in order to
    examine these issues, measures of each of these areas, with good
    psychometric properties, must be identified or developed. The role
    and nature of advanced oral language measures should also be
    examined. In addition, we must explore the best ways of measuring
    literacy achievement in adolescents, especially achievement and
    motivation, for the separable purposes of (1) identifying students\'
    needs, (2) informing classroom instruction and informally monitoring
    student progress, and (3) evaluating the progress and success of
    intervention efforts. It is important to identify strengths as well
    as deficits.

-   Valid assessment is a challenge with adolescents who may be
    reluctant respondents in an assessment situation. How can student
    motivation to demonstrate actual performance on assessment measures
    be addressed? Further, how can adolescent motivation be assessed in
    new, fine-grained ways so that motivational differences can be
    considered in identifying and treating adolescent literacy problems
    and in enhancing literacy progress for all students?

-   Comprehension is a complex construct. There is a need for measures
    that tap that complexity. Separate measures of vocabulary and text
    comprehension are crucial, and there is a need for comprehension
    measures that have external validity, for example, in the classroom
    experience. The mechanism for navigating text and comprehending a
    passage is complex; searching for information and summarizing text
    are examples of comprehension strategies. We need measures that will
    enable us to study the relationship between reading processing and
    comprehension, and how reading comprehension differs in process and
    strategy from listening comprehension. Workshop participants also
    voiced a practical need for comprehension assessment that includes
    measures of those abilities that students need to use in the world
    outside the classroom. A few examples include the use of schedules,
    maps, manuals, and business correspondence.

-   Can instruction be measured? What are the characteristics of
    exemplary instruction? Can they be quantified or characterized in a
    way that allows them to be taught as part of teacher preparation or
    professional development? If we are to develop a science of
    instruction, such measures will be imperative.

-   Workshop participants noted a need for psychometrically sound
    measures to assess native language literacy of older
    English-language learners. In addition, they noted that the
    alignment of instruction and assessment with the needs of diverse
    learners has been understudied. While some work has begun on English
    language learners, most of this is not addressing adolescent
    learners. Even where such measures do exist, translation of these is
    unlikely to be the solution to their use with non-English-speaking
    or English language learning students, and translation cannot
    address dialect or other sociocultural factors.

-   Workshop participants voiced the need for assessments outside of the
    testing situation, that measure reading proficiency across different
    text types (including electronic text) and writing, for tools and
    techniques that will enable teachers to gather valid information in
    the classroom, and for methods that will assist them in efficiently
    using this information to alter and individualize instruction in a
    timely way.