A Comprehensive K-3 Reading Policy establishes support and intensive reading interventions for K-3 students to ensure they read on grade level by the end of third grade. The policy also requires third grade students to demonstrate sufficient reading skills for promotion to fourth grade. For students severely below grade level and who do not…

This article describes the experiences of some of the many families of the deaf and hard of hearing children who come to Shared Reading Saturdays at Northern Essex Community College (NECC) in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The program, which includes monthly gatherings and is coordinated by the NECC's Gallaudet University Regional Center, features deaf…

School librarians are collaborators, making connections with community, school, technology, jobseekers, and individuals with language barriers. They have served as a resource of information to the community and students. As an elementary school librarian, the author has become more creative by seriously listening to school community members. What…

The end of the school year is in sight, but it's not too late to help lower-level readers catch up. Experts across the country were asked about the most common obstacles to reading success--and effective ways to over-come them. Their insights and tips can help a teacher make a real difference before summer begins.

A 2008 experiment suggests that a summer books program, when combined with teacher scaffolding lessons and parent support, can significantly improve the reading achievement of low-income children. However, just giving student books to read did not improve achievement. By having teachers provide end-of-year lessons in reading comprehension and…

How can library media specialists encourage kids to read outside the curriculum and maintain this reading beyond elementary school? What does it take to get children involved in recreational reading and turn their focus to books? At Sycamore Elementary School in Avon, Indiana, library media specialists have organized reading programs which have…

This article reports on a reading intervention project undertaken in a high poverty primary school in Gauteng where reading levels in both the home language, Northern Sotho, and in English were very low. Some of the factors associated with school effectiveness (SE) are first examined and thereafter the nature of the reading intervention programme…

Describes six secondary school reading programs that foster parent involvement. (RL)

Thousands of students in California learn English as a second language in schools that utilize exclusively monolingual--English Only--literacy programs. With such programs students do not have the opportunity to use the knowledge of their first language in order to acquire and master their second language. The project of cooperative bi-literacy…

The New Haven (Connecticut) public school system has 18 programs to involve parents in students' reading programs, including community tutors, a recipe booklet to teach reading at home, a parent-teacher reading advisory board, reading courses for parents, classroom visits, and letters to parents detailing their children's reading progress.…

Explains a program which involves parents as equal partners, sharing the responsibility for their children's education. (MKM)

A description and evaluation of Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I- funded projects in Vermont are contained in this report. Information is provided for the following areas: participation of public and private school children in each program component and for each grade level (preschool-grade 12); per pupil costs; full and part-time…

Briefly describes Witchita's Team Oriented Corrective Reading (TOCR) program for grades 1-8 and reports that a dissemination grant from the National Diffusion Network is helping spread the program to schools in other states and in Mexico. (SJL)

This program, included in "Effective Reading Programs...," involves all 200 black and white pupils in kindergarten through grade 6 in this small city school. The program has several components: a free-reading period held for 20 minutes each day, a library program, and a reading plan which combines three programs into one. The three…

This program, included in "Effective Reading Programs...," serves about 450 educationally disadvantaged children, aged from 3-5 years, and approximately 40 handicapped students, aged from 0-5 years. The overall goal of this project is to establish a partnership between school and parents for the purpose of educating preschool children.…