Abstract
The reading assessment portion of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress provides a broad definition of reading that includes the ability to understand written texts, develop and interpret meaning, and critique and evaluate. Readers draw on the ideas and information they acquire from text to meet a particular purpose or situational need. Certainly, comprehension includes all of these skills. Fortunately, quite a bit of research has been done on reading comprehension. This research finds that a number of factors affect comprehension, including factors external to the reader and the reader’s internal characteristics. Comprehension rates for middle school students are poor. Less than half read at grade level. Regrettably, many schools place students into reading groups or tracks based on what they sound like when they read aloud or how fast they read rather than on how well they comprehend.