Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 29(1), 2C© 2014 The Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children

Special Issue Guest Editors’ Preface Problems in Reading Comprehension:Connecting Theory and Practice

The ability to read and comprehend texts is critical for suc-cessful functioning in society as well as for lifelong learning.Despite many efforts by researchers, educators, and policymakers, the number of children who struggle to learn to readremains high. According to the latest Nation’s Report Card(National Center for Education Statistics, 2011), 33 percentof U.S. fourth graders and 24 percent of eighth graders readbelow basic levels. Other countries report similar statistics(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,2010). Students who experience reading difficulties are likelyto struggle throughout school and to experience difficultieswith employment and other aspects of daily living as adults(Snow, 2002).

In the past decades, considerable insights have beengained in the role that basic language processes such asphonological awareness, letter identification, orthographicprocessing, and fluency play in the development of readingdifficulties. There is a growing awareness, however, that manychildren and adults experience problems specifically withcomprehension of what they read, regardless of whether theyhave difficulty with basic language processes. This awarenessis reflected, for example, in priorities set by funding agenciessuch as the U.S. Department of Education and the Institutefor Education Sciences. Likewise, educators increasingly askfor evidence-based interventions that can support the devel-opment of comprehension processes.

The aim of this special issue is to present state-of-the-artresearch and theory on reading comprehension and to dis-cuss struggling readers/comprehenders from a cognitive per-spective. In a large-scale study, Spencer, Quinn, and Wagnerexamine the nature of comprehension problems of studentswho are poor in reading comprehension and discuss the im-plications of their findings for assessment and intervention.Kendeou, van den Broek, Helder, and Karlsson present anddiscuss a cognitive view of reading comprehension, com-mon sources of reading comprehension difficulties in this

context, and implications of the cognitive view for educa-tional practice. McMaster, Espin, and van den Broek buildon the cognitive view of reading comprehension and presentan application of this view to intervention research exam-ining interactions among reader characteristics, text proper-ties, and instructional contexts. Miller, Davis, Gilbert, Cho,Toste, Street, and Cutting also examine interactions amongreader characteristics, text properties, and instructional con-texts and discuss implications for identifying struggling read-ers and designing interventions to address their individualneeds. Finally, Sabatini, O’Reilly, Halderman, and Bruce dis-cuss the development of innovative reading assessments andpresent data from two assessments that are designed to workin tandem to provide a more complete picture of readingcomprehension.

Together, these articles present state-of-the-art researchin the diagnosis, assessment and intervention of strugglingcomprehenders, and foster the building of bridges betweentheory and educational practice.

Paul van den BroekLeiden University

Panayiota KendeouUniversity of Minnesota

Guest Editors

REFERENCES

National Center for Education Statistics. (2011). The nation’s report card:Reading 2011. Retrieved August 29, 2012, from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/main2011/2012457.asp.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (2010).PISA 2009 results: Executive summary.

Snow, C. (2002). Reading for understanding: Toward an R & D program inreading comprehension. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.