TOSWRF-2: Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency (Second Edition)

The Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency provides a reliable and valid measure of a student's ability to recognize printed words accurately and efficiently.

Its first edition has been popular with professionals in psychology, education, and reading and was used as an outcome measure in the congressionally mandated evaluation of the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (PL 107-110, title 1, Part B, Subpart1) known as the Reading First Impact Study (Gamse, Jacob, Horst, Boulay, & Unlu, 2008).

Ages: 6-3 through 24-11
Testing Time: 3 minutes (single form) or 6 minutes (two forms)
Administration: Group or Individual

The TOSWRF-2 is a companion to the Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency (Second Edition) (TOSCRF-2). While the TOSWRF-2 measures a student's ability to recognize individual words accurately and efficiently, the TOSCRF-2 measures a student's essential contextual reading abilities (i.e., word identification, word meaning, word building, sentence structure, comprehension, and fluency).

What makes the TOSWRF-2 an effective reading fluency assessment tool?

• Measures students' ability to recognize printed words silently and efficiently without requiring oral reading.
• Ideal for classroom teachers, special educators, reading specialists, school psychologists, Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), or any other professionals with some training in standardized test administration.
• Features four equivalent forms (A, B, C, D) for reliable repeated assessments.
• Based on a nationally representative sample of 2,429 individuals across 35 states.
• Provides raw scores, standard scores, percentiles, and age/grade equivalents.
• Minimal false positives and false negatives.
• Ideal for universal screening and progress monitoring.

The TOSWRF-2 can be used to:

• Identify students with word-level and general reading difficulties and document the degree of their problems.
  
• Screen large numbers of students at once.
  
• Monitor student progress up to four times per year.
  
• Research the nature of reading difficulties.

Click here to view related research (PDF).

New Features of the TOSWRF-2

• New normative data were collected between 2009-2012.
  
• Co-normed with the TOSCRF-2 and TWS-5.
  
• Normative information was extended downward to include ages 6 years 3 months and upward to include ages 18-0 through 24-11.
  
• Alternate forms were increased from two to four.
  
• An all-new, one-minute practice form was added to each TOSWRF-2 form.
  
• Administration instructions were updated to expand the use of TOSWRF-2, particularly with deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
  
• A Supplemental Administration and Scoring Instruction booklet is now included for greater convenience in school-wide universal screening applications.
  
• Scoring keys were revised.
  
• Practice effects have been addressed.
  
• Evidence for validity has been expanded to include studies by independent researchers as well as by the test authors.

How does the TOSWRF-2 work?

Using a testing format originally pioneered by Guilford in his Structure of Intellect studies, the TOSWRF-2 measures a students' current reading levels by counting the number of printed words that they can identify within 3 minutes. Students are presented with rows of words, ordered by reading difficulty; no spaces appear between the words (e.g., dimhowfigblue). Students are given 3 minutes to draw a line between the boundaries of as many words as possible (e.g., dim/how/fig/blue).

Assessment Forms

Any one of the four equivalent forms (A, B, C, and D) may be administered to a single child or an entire classroom of children, depending on the purpose of the assessment. While most uses require only one form administration, you may administer any two forms concurrently to increase reliability. A single form can be administered in 3 minutes, and two forms can be administered in 6 minutes.

Validity

New validity studies for TOSWRF-2 show that it is valid for a wide variety of subgroups, as well as for the general population. In addition, we have expanded our study of the test's validity by investigating its diagnostic accuracy as it relates to its sensitivity, specificity, classification accuracy, and receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve (ROC/AUC). These analyses are particularly rigorous, evidence-based techniques for establishing validity.

The complete TOSCRF-2 kit includes:

• Examiner's Manual
• 25 Student Record Forms A
• 25 Student Record Forms B
• 25 Student Record Forms C
• 25 Student Record Forms D
• Sturdy storage box

©2014