June 2011

Research conducted using YARC finds nearly half of all secondary school pupils with reading difficulties are not on SEN Register

The study found that some students in every secondary school year group were identified with a reading age of 6 or 7 years and a substantial proportion of pupils who experience reading difficulties were not identified on the school's SEN Register.

A team led by Professor Maggie Snowling, Professor Charles Hulme and Dr Sue Stothard at the Centre for Reading and Language at the University of York conducted the research as part of the development and standardisation of the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension: Passage Reading Secondary (YARC Secondary).

YARC Secondary contains a series of prose passages - both fiction and non-fiction - that enables the assessment of a student's reading comprehension and fluency in a systematic way across the secondary school years.

Read the press release which includes all key findings

Download the research paper (PDF, 513KB)