To test the language experience hypothesis, the comprehension of high-, moderate-, and low-familiarity idioms was examined in 24 African-American and 24 European-American fifth graders. Results indicated a significant effect of group on idioms rated as low-familiarity. The influence of social and regional culture on idiom comprehension is…

The Test of Language Development--Intermediate (TOLD-I) was administered to 26 learning disabled (LD) and 26 nonLD elementary aged black children. The subjects were matched for age, IQ, and class placement. Statistically significant differences were found between the two groups on four of the five subtests of the TOLD-I. The data also were…

Analyzes oral narrative told to peers by a Black girl and compares it to one told to an adult female by a White middle-class girl. Proposes that the White girl's style is compatible with school-based values governing speech and writing, while the Black girl's style is compatible with cultures emphasizing verbal mastery but is not compatible with…

Facing mounting evidence that California has fallen behind on many key indicators of educational performance, policymakers and the public share considerable interest in exploring whether California should expand public funding for preschool education. This expanded funding will be most effective if resources can be directed to their most efficient…

This study examined the need to develop reliable and valid procedures for screening large populations for possible speech and language problems and the use of the Fluharty Preschool Speech and Language Screening Test (FPSLST) as such a device. The test was administered to 260 preschool children, ages three to six. There were 166 Blacks and 94…

This study described ways in which two groups of urban, low-socioeconomic children remained the same and differed after a transition year in skills-based curriculum and a continuing year in whole language curriculum. Both groups had experienced whole language instruction in the first two years in kindergarten and first grade. This investigation…

The effectiveness of an instructional improvement project in the Greeley-Evans Schools, Colorado, was studied. Teachers were provided inservice education in a class called the Essentials of Instruction. Recognizing that receiving training was not the same as being an implementer of the innovation, the Levels of Use instrument identified teachers…