Australian comparison data for the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE)

This paper reports provisional Australian comparison data and scoring instructions for the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE). The TOWRE is a popular reading fluency test used in reading research, classroom assessment and clinical practice. Approximate 'norms' were obtained from children attending four primary schools in New South Wales. Results suggested that the US norms for the TOWRE may overestimate the reading level of Australian children in lower grades and that the performance on the two parallel forms (A and B) of the subtests (Sight Word Efficiency and Phonemic Decoding Efficiency) of the TOWRE did not differ from each other. While no performance differences were found between boys and girls overall, it was noted that the youngest boys outperformed the youngest girls on Form A of the Sight Word Efficiency subtest, and the youngest girls outperformed the youngest boys on Form B of the Sight Word Efficiency subtest. Limitations of the current study are discussed and a brief reference is made to a new (2012) edition of TOWRE (TOWRE-2).