Despite advances in the science of teaching reading, there still exists a small percentage of students who fail to make the expected progress in reading–related skills, notwithstanding attempts at intervention. Even if these struggling readers learn to decode adequately, fluency remains a problem for many, and little is known about the effectiveness of fluency interventions for older students with severe reading deficits. This study used a randomized experimental design to test the efficacy of a fluency intervention program on the word–identification and reading–comprehension outcomes of 60 middle–school students with severe reading delays. Results showed that students in the experimental group made more progress on standardized tests of reading fluency than students in the control group. No gains were seen in reading comprehension.
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