It's snowing here today, so I spent some time reading a great article "Reading fluency assessment and instruction: What, why and how?"

Research has demonstrated the importance of fluency in the development of reading proficiency, and a variety of effective methods for the assessment and instruction of it have been developed.

Lack of reading fluency is a reliable predictor of reading comprehension problems. A labored, disconnected fashion with focus on decoding at the word level makes comprehension of the text difficult, if not impossible.
School districts are deciding to do away with a spelling program, per say, and believe that if a great writing program is implemented throughout all the subjects, that students will incidentally or automatically become great spellers and readers. Although this may be true for about 1% of students in an entire district, it is not a fact for the other 99%. Struggling readers may not gain reading fluency incidentally or automatically. Struggling readers need:
*direct instruction in word reading. Without accurate word reading, the reader will have no access to the author's intend meaning.
*opportunities for intense, fluency focused practice incorporated into their reading/writing program.
The benefit? Automaticity in one aspect of reading frees the processing space for higher order thinking. Now comprehension is much more easily accomplished.
Concerned teachers wanting to meet the needs of all students in their classroom should consider whether they can identify their dysfluent readers and what type of instruction they plan to provide for those readers.