Teacher identification of reading difficulties among Arabic-speaking third graders in Israel: a pilot study

Recently, concerns have been raised about Arabic-speaking students’ reading achievement in Israel. Understanding language teachers’ ability to identify poor reading skills is crucial to improve students’ literacy outcomes. This pilot study examined three main aspects: the factors Arabic-speaking language teachers use to determine their third-grade students’ word reading fluency and comprehension, their ability to identify students who need an intervention based on their reading performance, and the differences between teachers who make accurate and those who make inaccurate assessments of their students’ literacy skills. The pilot study included a preliminary sample of 58 teachers and 112 students, with one to three students selected from each teacher’s classroom for assessment. All participants were native Arabic speakers. Initial findings suggest that the main factors informing teachers’ decisions on reading fluency and comprehension are vocabulary size (65.70%–77.70%), linguistic skills (63.9%–76%), and oral reading level (62%–74.30%), while less emphasis was placed on test scores (25.9%–31%) and parents’ reports (13.9%–32.80%). Four distinct profiles of students at risk of reading difficulties (ARORD) emerged: low word reading fluency and comprehension (22%), low fluency only (12%), low comprehension only (4%), and a typical group (62%). Teachers identified students with difficulties in both areas with 80% accuracy, in reading comprehension with 60%, in word reading fluency with 0%, and in the typical group with 65%. The data indicated that teachers who taught more student-facing hours were better at identifying students ARORD. The implucations highlighte the need for teachers training focused on enhancing Arabic teachers' ability to accurately assess literacy skills and become familiar with different profiles of students’ reading difficulties.