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Introduction to the Special Issue on Models of Reading Component Skills in Low-Literate Adults

Models of reading component skills and related cognitive abilities have been studied extensively with school-age students, but relatively few studies have investigated the reading skills of adults with low literacy participating in adult literacy and adult basic and secondary education programs. Substantial proportions of such adults may have learning disabilities, and many self-report histories of learning disabilities. In addition, prior investigations (Bruck, 1992; Greenberg, Ehri, & Perin, 1997, 2002; Sabatini, 2002), as well as the studies included in this special issue of the Journal of Lea rning Disabilities, have found problems with phonological awareness and decoding that are typical of individuals with reading disabilities. The situation is complicated by the fact that the adult education population also includes substantial numbers of students whose native language is not English, varying across regions of the country in number and country of origin. Patterns of reading and related skills of native and nonnative speakers differ even when considering only individuals who are relatively fluent in conversational English (e.g., Davidson & Strucker, 2002). One cannot assume that models of reading skills developed for children will apply to adults with similar overall reading levels. Relationships among component skills and abilities may vary depending on age, reading skills, and specific disabilities. In addition, measures intended to assess a particular construct may function differently for adults with different experience and language backgrounds. This special issue draws on research conducted by four projects on adult literacy funded jointly by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute for Literacy, and the U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education. In addition to conducting experimental studies of instruction in reading, these projects have conducted analyses to model the reading performance of the adult learners. The samples and approaches to modeling differed somewhat across projects. Three of the projects focused on adults reading at the intermediate level (roughly grade levels 2–7), and one project included adults from all six levels of adult basic and secondary education (grade levels 1–high school). All participants spoke sufficient English to be placed in English-language reading classes, but many were not native speakers. The studies generally included measures of reading components as well as varying measures of phonological skills, spelling, oral language, and naming speed. The results are relevant to important questions about reliability and validity of measurement, relationships among skills, and differences between native and nonnative speakers. The findings have both theoretical importance and practical implications. This issue begins with an introductory article by Miller, McCardle, and Hernandez that sets the context by summarizing data on the extent of adult literacy needs—describing federal research efforts aimed at a better understanding of the problem and instructional solutions—and discussing the needs for continued research. In the first of the studies reported, MacArthur, Konold, Glutting, and Alamprese investigated the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills with adult basic education (ABE) learners, including both native and nonnative English speakers. They found a model that fit both native and nonnative populations equally well without modification, showing that the tests measure the same constructs with the same accuracy for both groups. In the next article, Sabatini, Sawaki, Shore, and Scarborough examine the interrelationships among latent factors of the simple view model of reading comprehension (word recognition and language comprehension) and hypothesized additional factors (vocabulary and reading fluency) in a sample of ABE learners. Their analysis found that the simple view adequately accounted for variation in reading comprehension. The next study, by Nanda, Greenberg, and Morris, examined whether measurement constructs behind reading-related tests for struggling adult readers are similar to what is known about measurement constructs for children. Their main conclusions pertain to difficulties encountered in applying child-based assumptions to developing measurement models for struggling adult