Word learning can build the high-quality word representations that support skilled reading and language comprehension. According to the partial knowledge hypothesis, words that are partially known, a.k.a. "frontier words" (Durso & Shore, 1991), may be good targets for instruction precisely because they are already familiar. However,…

Across multiple schools and sites, the impact of grade-at-intervention was evaluated for children at risk or meeting criteria for reading disabilities. A multiple-component reading intervention with demonstrated efficacy was offered to small groups of children in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade. In a quasi-experimental design, 172 children received the…

This study examines the relationship between IQ and yearly academic growth rate in reading and mathematics for low income children in the primary grades involved in the Direct Instruction Follow Through program (DIFT). Low income children, from 20 communities in the United States, who engaged in the DIFT program between 1969 and 1977 for either 3…