Fluency in reading is one of the subtle steps in a child's development crucial to learning science and social studies in later grades, he says. Stahl has spent much of the past several years studying how early elementary school students develop fluency in reading. Increasing reading fluency is one of the fundamental ways that we can help improve the academic success of Georgia's students. I congratulate Dr. Stahl and his colleagues for their efforts in this area. Fluency has long been a neglected area of reading research despite studies showing that 44 percent of students in one sample were dysfluent with grade level stories read under supportive testing conditions, Stahl said.
Children typically develop fluency in reading in the second or third grade.
By the fourth grade, children are expected to learn independently from text, and the curriculum begins to shift from information that is generally known to children to information that is new. Stahl may already be well on his way to creating that national model. His previous research has produced dramatic results. However impressive and widely cited these results, the study lacked a control group and a measure of silent reading comprehension. Stahl hopes to confirm his previous findings in the new study.