Stealth assessment of oral reading fluency during interactive book reading

Oral reading fluency (ORF) assessments are widely used to predict students’ reading proficiency and signal the need for additional instruction. Standardized ORF assessments require substantial resources to develop and take time from instruction to administer; they may also increase test anxiety. To address these concerns, we explored stealth assessment of ORF during book reading. Eighty students (grades 4–5) engaged in interactive book reading throughout two semesters, producing 21,696 recordings of oral reading. Students also completed standardized ORF and reading achievement tests. Results showed the stealth assessment estimated ORF and predicted reading achievement similarly to the standardized ORF test. It successfully detected ORF growth, but growth estimate from standardized and stealth ORF assessments showed divergence. We discuss the findings and provide some directions for future work.