Abstract
This study examined the sensitivity of measures frequently used to identify children at risk for reading disabilities for use with Spanish-speaking English learners. In addition, this study sought to determine whether English learners should be assessed in English, the language of instruction, or in Spanish, their home language. The performance of 49 native English speakers and 81 English learners in the first grade was assessed by standardized measures of cognitive and linguistic processes that underlie reading disabilities. All students were assessed in English, and Latino/a children were given a parallel battery of tests in Spanish. The students were assessed in both the fall and spring sessions of their first-grade year, and the predictive utility of fall scores for end-of-year reading performance was examined. Measures of word recognition, oral reading fluency, and phonological processing in English successfully discriminated between good readers and students at risk for reading difficulties, but not between native English speakers and English learners. The English learners showed significantly greater performance and growth in English than they showed on parallel Spanish measures. In general, the English measures had more predictive utility for reading performance in the spring session for students in both language groups. Furthermore, fall reading skill was a better predictor than language group for reading performance in the spring session. The results from this study suggest that when English learners receive instruction only in English, presenting parallel tasks in their home language adds little value in the process of identifying students who may be at risk for reading difficulties in English.