Reading Disabled Students’ Word Recognition Abilities: An Elementary and Secondary Perspective

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare three word recognition abilities of reading disabled students. One hundred and fifty (150) reading disabled pupils, 75 elementary and 75 high school, were randomly selected to participate in this study. Correlated t‐test procedures were used to process the data. The dependent variables were the students’ analytical, phonics, and context analysis word recognition abilities as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test, Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, and 12 cloze passages. Results indicated that elementary and secondary reading disabled pupils have significant differences in their ability to use the three different word recognition abilities investigated. Implications for minimum competency testing in reading were discussed.