Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15516/cje.v24i1.4089
Reading Profiles May Not Be an Informative Approach to Identifying At-Risk Readers in Middle School
Florina Erbeli
orcid.org/0000-0002-4955-3170
; Department of Educational Psychology Texas A&M University 4225 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843, United States
Abstract
Latent profile analysis is a widely used approach to identifying subgroups of
students at risk for reading difficulties. However, evidence from reading research
involving middle schoolers challenges the utility and meaning of these putatively
categorically distinct reading profiles, which can be statistically derived even in the
absence of real profiles. The current study challenges the view that reading profiles
reflect distinct groups. In fact, it tests the hypothesis that reading is continuous, with
severity gradations in its performance. The sample consisted of 695 seventh graders
(Mage = 12.76 years, SDage = 0.43) from Slovenia reading in English as a foreign
language. The main outcome measures included various assessments of reading
skills in English as a foreign language. Results of the latent profile analysis showed
that reading profiles were arrayed in a tiered spectrum of severity, from higher to
lower reading performance. Profiles were not qualitatively different, and relations
with external correlates increased consistently with each profile. Findings suggest
that reading profiles in middle school may represent continuous gradations. Hence,
reading interventions in middle school should be based on continuous liability
assessments rather than profile subtyping.
Keywords
English as a foreign language; middle school; reading groups
Hrčak ID:
280318
URI
Publication date:
18.5.2022.
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