Students in lower-income countries oftenacquire limited literacy in school and often drop outilliterate. For those who stay, the problem is not detecteduntil it is too late to intervene. Oral reading fluencytests given in the early grades can quickly andinexpensively assess student literacy. For this reason,one-minute reading studies have been popular. A searchcarried out in early 2010 showed that over 50 fluencystudies have been conducted in various countries, and thatnorms have been established in the U.S., Mexico, and Chile.The studies often reported data in ways that were not easilycomparable, and few had collected nationally representativedata. However, the findings consistently showed very limitedachievement. A multi-country study matching reading andinstructional time data showed that the deficits are largelydue to limited reading practice. The findings also suggestthat few governments have taken action to improve readingoutcomes on the basis of test scores. However, a number ofpilot reading programs that emphasized phonics and practicewere financed by donors and implemented by Non-GovernmentalOrganizations (NGOs). These brought about substantialimprovements within a few months. Their success suggeststhat it is eminently feasible to raise student outcomessignificantly through evidence based reading methods.Overall, the oral reading fluency tests have shown goodpsychometric properties, although reading achievementtypically shows much variability within classes and samplingprocedures could improve. Cross-linguistic comparability isrough and approximate, but overall it is possible to monitorreading outcomes across time and countries.
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