The purpose of the current study was to investigate the difference in pro-social behavior, self-regulation, overall reading performance, Lexile levels, and teachers' perception of classroom climate of kindergarten students who received the Ready to Learn (RTL; Brigman, Lane, & Lane, 2008) classroom guidance program (treatment group: n = 173)…

Reading buddies programs, which pair older and younger students to read books together on a regular basis, are common in many U.S. elementary schools. Yet, the research base on these programs is limited. Therefore, we conducted a quasiexperimental study of a reading buddies program targeting vocabulary and comprehension. The program we studied…

The effectiveness of a joint interactive storybook reading program delivered by class teachers to develop literacy skills is examined in Hebrew-speaking preschool and kindergarten children. Post-intervention, both groups achieved significantly higher gains in language and print concept skills than age-matched comparison groups that did not have…

Experimental and quasi-experimental designs are used in educational research to establish causality and develop effective practices. These research designs rely on a counterfactual model that, in simple form, calls for a comparison between a treatment group and a control group. Developers of educational practices often assume that the population…

Two primary purposes guided this quasi-experimental within-teacher study: (a) to examine changes from baseline through 2 years of professional development (Individualizing Student Instruction) in kindergarten teachers' differentiation of Tier 1 literacy instruction; and (b) to examine changes in reading and vocabulary of 3 cohorts of the teachers'…

The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the Adapted Dialogic Reading Program (ADR) on the language and early literacy skills of Turkish kindergarteners from low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds. The effectiveness of ADR was investigated across six different treatment conditions including classroom and home based implementations in various…

This pilot study examined an implementation of a kindergarten summer school reading program in 4 high-poverty urban schools. The program targeted both basic reading skills and oral language development. Students were randomly assigned to a treatment group (n = 25) or a typical practice comparison group (n = 28) within each school; however,…

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life." This popular Chinese proverb is an apt metaphor for the dilemma faced by principals and curriculum coordinators when deciding whether to purchase a scripted commercial reading program. Although a scripted reading program may solve…

Most K-12 evaluations are designed to make inferences about how a program implemented at the classroom or school level affects student learning outcomes and such inferences inherently involve hierarchical data structure. One methodological challenge for evaluators is linking program implementation factors typically measured at the classroom or…

This article systematically reviews research on the achievement outcomes of four types of approaches to improving the reading success of children in the elementary grades: reading curricula, instructional technology, instructional process programs, and combinations of curricula and instructional process. Study inclusion criteria included use of…

This bulletin is based upon a conference on beginning reading instruction which brought together professional leaders in the field of reading and related disciplines. Their purpose was to report on research and to review a variety of practices on primary reading. Keynoting the conference, one of America's foremost reading authorities gives a…