Gray Oral Reading Tests (GORT-5) - Fifth Edition

B R Bryant & J LWiederholt

The Gray Oral Reading Tests, now in its fifth edition, is one of the most widely used measures of oral reading fluency and comprehension. The GORT-5 has two equivalent forms, Form A and Form B. Each form contains 16 developmentally sequenced reading passages with five comprehension questions each.  An optional miscue analysis system allows reading specialists to analyse reading errors and tailor interventions to specific students’ needs.

New Features of the GORT-5:

• New normative data were collected in 2008-2010
• Norms were extended upwards to age 23 years, 11 months
• Basal and ceiling rules were streamlined to make administration easier and more efficient
• Comprehension questions were completely revised, and studies were provided to show that the items are passage dependent 
• Reliability and validity studies were added

• The overall look of the test was updated

Available Scores for the GORT-5:

• Rate. The Rate Score is derived from the amount of time in seconds taken by a student to read a story aloud.
• Accuracy. The Accuracy Score is derived from the number of words the student pronounces correctly when reading the passage.
• Fluency. The Fluency Score is a combination of the student’s Rate and Accuracy Scores.
• Comprehension. The Comprehension Score is the number of questions about the stories that the student answers correctly. The open-ended format ensures that the items are passage dependent.

• Oral Reading Index. The Oral Reading Index is a composite score formed by combining students’ Fluency and Comprehension scaled scores.

Rate, Accuracy, Fluency, and Comprehension are reported as raw scores, grade and age equivalents, percentile ranks, and scaled scores having a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3. The Oral Reading Index is reported as a standard score based on a distribution having a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Percentile ranks are also provided.

Reliability and Validity

• For both forms, average internal consistency (content sampling) reliability coefficients exceed .90.
• The alternate forms reliability coefficients for the Oral Reading Index exceed .90. The average test-retest (time sampling) coefficients for the ORI for the same form (e.g., Form A to A, Form B to B) exceed .85.