The Stability of Reading and Writing Skills for Middle-School Students With and Without Dyslexia

The purpose of this study was to measure reading and writing skills over time for middle school students with and without dyslexia. Seven participants in grades 6–8 participated in a 10-week assessment study. Five of seven participants were diagnosed with dyslexia. The first four sessions occurred during the last 4 weeks of participants’ academic years, and the remaining six sessions occurred during their first 6 weeks of summer break. Researchers met online with students to collect weekly oral reading and written expression data via curriculum-based measures. We used multilevel modeling to examine a) the change in performance level on reading and writing tasks immediately following the conclusion of the academic year, and b) overall trends of reading and writing skills to examine the stability of the participants’ skills. Results show that participants maintained their literacy skills over the measurement period. Individuals with dyslexia underperformed compared to their peers without dyslexia.