Amendum, Steven J.Conradi, KristinLiebfreund, Meghan D.2016-03-292016-03-29Copyright2015-08-11Steven J. Amendum, Kristin Conradi & Meghan D. Liebfreund (2016) The Push for More Challenging Texts: An Analysis of Early Readers ’ Rate, Accuracy, and Comprehension, Reading Psychology, 37:4, 570-600, DOI: 10.1080/02702711.2015.10726090270-2711 ; e- 1521-0685http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/17572Publisher's PDF.The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the challenge level of text and early readers’ reading comprehension. This relationship was also examined with consideration to students’ word recognition accuracy and read- ing rate. Participants included 636 students, in Grades 1–3, in a southeastern state. Results suggest that students reading texts well above their actual grade levels, even with sufficient accuracy scores, scored significantly lower on com- prehension than students reading texts at their actual grade level. This result also held regardless of students’ reading rates. Findings signal the importance of considering text level during instruction and suggest some caution is warranted when pushing students into texts well above their grade levels.en-USThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Reading Psychology on 11 Aug 2015, available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02702711.2015.1072609ArticleDOI: 10.1080/02702711.2015.1072609