Donald L. Compton

Associate Professor of Special Education

Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1993

Research Area

Modeling individual differences in the reading development of children.

Professor Compton teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in instructional principles and procedures in reading for students with disabilities.

Learn More about Donald L. Compton:

Courses Taught | Selected Publications
CV | Media Mentions

Selected Publications

Compton, D. L. (2000). Modeling the growth of decoding skills in first-grade children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4, 219-258.

Compton, D. L. (2000). Modeling the response of normally achieving and at-risk first grade children to word reading instruction. Annals of Dyslexia, 50, 53-84.

Compton, D. L., DeFries, J. C., & Olson, R. K., (2001). Are RAN and phonological awareness deficits additive in reading disabled individuals? Dyslexia, 7, 125-149.

Compton, D. L. (2002). The relationship between phonological processing, orthographic processing, and lexical development in reading-disabled children. Journal of Special Education, 35, 201-210.

Compton, D. L., Olson, R. K., DeFries, J. C., & Pennington, B. F. (2002). Comparing the relationships among two different versions of alphanumeric RAN and various word-level reading skills. Scientific Studies of Reading, 6, 343-368.

McMaster, K., Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., & Compton, D. L. (2002). Monitoring the academic progress of children who are unresponsive to generally effective early reading intervention. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 27, 23-33.

Compton, D. L. (2003). The influence of item composition on RAN letter performance in first-grade children. Journal of Special Education, 37, 81-94.

Compton, D. L. (2003). Modeling the relationship between growth in rapid naming speed and decoding skill in first-grade children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 225-239.

Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., & Compton, D. L. (2004). Monitoring early reading development in first grade: Word identification fluency versus nonsense word fluency. Exceptional Children.

Compton, D. L., Appleton, A., & Hosp, M. K. (2004). Exploring the relationship between text-leveling systems and reading accuracy and fluency in second grade students who are average and poor decoders. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice.

Yoder, P., & Compton, D. L. (2004). Identifying predictors of treatment response. Mental Retardation and Developmental Research Reviews, 10, 162-168.

Compton, D. L., Olinghouse, N. G., Elleman, A., Vining, J., Appleton, A. C., Vail, J. & Summers, M. (2005). Putting transfer back on trial: Modeling individual differences in the transfer of decoding skill gains to other aspects of reading acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 55-69.

Fuchs, L. S., Compton, D. L., Fuchs, D., Paulsen, K., Bryant, J. D., & Hamlett, C. L. (2005). Responsiveness to intervention: Preventing and identifying mathematics disability. Teaching Exceptional Children, March/April, 60-63.

McMaster, K. L., Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., & Compton, D. L. (2005). Responding to Nonresponders: An experimental field trial of identification and intervention methods. Exceptional Children, 71, 445-463.

Gersten, R., Fuchs, L. S., Compton, D. L., Coyne, M., Greenwood, C., & Innocenti, M. S. (2005). Quality indicators for group experimental and quasi-experimental research in special education. Exceptional Children, 71, 149-164.

Fuchs, L. S., Compton, D. L., Fuchs, D., Paulsen, K., Bryant, J. D., & Hamlett, C. L. (2005). The prevention, identification, and cognitive determinants of math difficulty. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 493-513.

Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Compton, D. L., Powell, S. R., Seethaler, P. M., Capizzi, A. M., Schatschneider, C., & Fletcher, J. M. (2006). The cognitive correlates of third-grade skill arithmetic, algorithm computation, and arithmetic word problems. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 29-43

Compton, D. L. (2006). How should “unresponsiveness” to secondary intervention be operationalized? It’s all about the nudge. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39, 170-173.

Compton, D. L., Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., & Bryant, J. D. (2006). Selecting at-risk readers in first grade for early intervention: A two-year longitudinal study of decision rules and procedures. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 394-409.

Olinghouse, N. G., Lambert, W., & Compton, D. L. (2006). Monitoring children with reading disabilities’ response to phonics intervention: Are there differences between intervention aligned and general skill progress monitoring assessments? Exceptional Children, 73, 90-106.

Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Compton, D. L., Bryant, J. D., Hamlett, C. L., & Seethaler, P. M. (2007). Mathematics screening and progress monitoring at first grade: Implications for response-to-intervention. Exceptional Children, 73, 311-330.

Fuchs, D., Compton, D. L., Fuchs, L. S., Bryant, J. D., & Davis G. N. (in press). Making “secondary intervention” work in a three-tier responsiveness-to-intervention model: Findings from the first-grade longitudinal reading study at the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal.

Davis G. N., & Lindo, E. J., Compton, D. L. (2007). Children at risk for reading failure: Constructing an early screening measure. Teaching Exceptional Children, 39(5), 32-39.

Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., Compton, D. L., Bouton, B., Caffrey, E., and Hill, L. (2007). Dynamic assessment as responsiveness to intervention: A scripted protocol to identify young at-risk readers. Teaching Exceptional Children, 39(5), 58-63.

Manuscripts in progress

Compton, D. L., Fuchs, L. S., Hamlett, C. L., Powell, S. R., Capizzi, A., & Morgan, P. (2007). Examining the comparability of CBM oral reading fluency across passage sets. Manuscript in preparation.

Olinghouse, N. G., Bigelow, E., Elleman, A., Lawrence, J., Vining, J., & Compton, D. L., (2007). Isolating the Effects of Metacognitive Instruction on the Retention of Declarative Knowledge in Struggling Readers. Manuscript in preparation.

Compton, D. L., & Olson, R. K., (2007). Assessing orthographic representational quality and its relationship with word-level reading skills. Manuscript in preparation.

Compton, D. L., & Schatschneider, C. (2007). Are there multiple dimensions of orthographic processing related to early word reading in children? Manuscript in preparation.

Book Chapters

Compton, D. L., Davis, C. J., DeFries, J. C., Gayan, J., & Olson, R. K. (2001). Genetic and environmental influences on reading and RAN: An overview of results from the Colorado twin study. In M. Wolf (Ed.), Time, fluency, and developmental dyslexia. Baltimore, MD: York Press.

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