The Relationship between Race, Income, and Oral Reading Fluency and Performance on Two Reading Comprehension Measures

Oral reading fluency is a good predictor of performance on state reading assessments. The present study addressed the issue of bias by examining whether oral reading fluency scores differentially predict performance on a state reading assessment and the Metropolitan Achievement Tests, 7th Edition (MAT/7) across economic and racial groups. Information from 442 fourth-grade students from a Midwest public school was analyzed using multiple linear regression. All three variables made a significant contribution to predicting performance on the state assessment and the MAT/7. Oral reading fluency made the greatest contribution. The results also indicate that the oral reading fluency scores exhibit intercept bias on the state reading test. A stepwise regression procedure found no evidence of bias. On both the state reading test and the MAT/7, the test scores of African American and low-income students were overpredicted, whereas those of Caucasian and higher-income students were underpredicted.