There is a range of reasons why college students may be underprepared to read, but one possibility is that some college students are below a threshold of proficiency in the component skills of reading. The presence of thresholds means that when students fall below that threshold, their proficiency in that component skill of reading is not sufficient for there to be a relationship with comprehension performance. The present study assessed (a) whether there were thresholds in proficiencies in foundational skills, (b) whether students falling below the thresholds were disproportionately in developmental literary programs (i.e., institutionally designated as underprepared), and (c) the implications of being below the thresholds on engaging in strategic processing during reading. College students were administered assessments of foundational literacy skills, text comprehension, and strategic processing of texts. The sample included students who were enrolled in developmental literacy programs and students who were not. There were thresholds found in the foundational skills associated with word-, sentence-, and discourse-level processing. Participants below these thresholds were represented disproportionately by students determined to be underprepared for college and assigned to developmental literacy programs. Finally, students falling below the thresholds demonstrated lower reading strategy scores than students above the threshold.

大学生阅读准备不足的原因有很多，但一种可能是一些大学生在阅读的组成技能方面低于熟练程度的门槛。阈值的存在意味着当学生低于该阈值时，他们对该组件阅读技能的熟练程度不足以与理解表现相关。本研究评估了 (a) 基础技能的熟练程度是否存在阈值，(b) 低于阈值的学生是否在发展文学课程中比例过高（即，制度上指定为准备不足），以及 (c) 低于阈值的学生的影响在阅读过程中参与战略处理的门槛。对大学生进行了基础读写能力、文本理解和文本策略处理的评估。样本包括参加发展性扫盲计划的学生和没有参加的学生。在与单词、句子和话语级别处理相关的基础技能中发现了阈值。低于这些阈值的参与者不成比例地代表了被确定为上大学准备不足并被分配到发展性扫盲计划的学生。最后，低于阈值的学生表现出比高于阈值的学生更低的阅读策略分数。在与单词、句子和话语级别处理相关的基础技能中发现了阈值。低于这些阈值的参与者不成比例地代表了被确定为上大学准备不足并被分配到发展性扫盲计划的学生。最后，低于阈值的学生表现出比高于阈值的学生更低的阅读策略分数。在与单词、句子和话语级别处理相关的基础技能中发现了阈值。低于这些阈值的参与者不成比例地代表了被确定为上大学准备不足并被分配到发展性扫盲计划的学生。最后，低于阈值的学生表现出比高于阈值的学生更低的阅读策略分数。