Four-day school weeks are becoming increasingly common in the U.S., but their effect on achievement is not well-understood. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we conduct the most representative student-level analysis to date of the effects of four-day weeks on student achievement and within-year growth using NWEA MAP Growth data. We…

How do we determine if incoming students are ready for college-level work? California's community college system is currently working to address this complex question in a more nuanced, comprehensive, and equitable way. This research brief offers insights that can inform these efforts resulting from the Student Transcript-Enhanced Placement Study…

In 2010, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Education Program has established the Deeper Learning Initiative, which focuses on students' development of deeper learning skills (i.e., the mastery of core academic content, critical-thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and "learn-how-to-learn" skills). Two test…

Reviews the literature pertaining to the use of hypnosis in improving reading proficiency, describes a procedure teachers can use, and explains why they should use it. (FL)

This article describes the use of "Ritalin" to calm overactive children. The drug's side effects are reported, and research on the effect of "Ritalin" on reading performance in the classroom is reviewed. It is concluded that use of stimulant drugs to help reading underachievers is not supported by research. (Author/JDD)

To explore whether different balances of fiction/non-fiction reading and challenge might help explain differences in reading achievement between genders, data on 45,670 pupils who independently read over 3 million books were analysed. Moderate (rather than high or low) levels of challenge were positively associated with achievement gain, but…

This article on what principals should know about reading addresses the issue of how to prepare students to become competent lifelong readers. It lays the foundation for bringing about high gains in reading motivation and achievement, and presents five basic premises and sets of recommendations for each premise. The premises are: (1) children…

Contends that the use of the cloze procedure, frequently with modifications, can provide reading teachers with an interesting and instructionally sound approach for supplementing the basic reading program. Suggests that cloze techniques can be used both for teaching students how to read more competently and for evaluating their reading…

To help teachers, policy analysts, and others understand the 1994 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Assessment in Reading, this journal issue presents the objectives and examples of how students in grades 4, 8, and 12 will be assessed. The issue discusses NAEP's view of reading; key features of the assessment; reading purposes;…

Describes a successful volunteer tutorial reading program, developed by the New Haven, Connecticut, school system, that provides disabled readers with assistance from volunteer tutors. Includes a list of seven caveats to consider when developing a volunteer program. (MD)

To explain reading level clearly to parents of learning disabled children, teachers must focus on two broad areas: the differences between standardized tests, and the occasional mismatch between sequence of instruction and the test items, per se. (CL)

This report presents a new analysis of student achievement scores and educational progress for states on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Results based on score quartiles show that states are generally making more progress in mathematics achievement than in reading, good readers are getting better at the same time weak readers are…

This report examines trends in student learning. Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the first section reports on current trends in reading and mathematics test scores, highlighting arithmetic and noting that student's computation skills have stagnated or declined in recent years. The second section revisits the…

A method is described for determining the reading level of materials using a computerized test. (MK)

Describes a model for a comprehensive reading program that identifies critical elements of a program and their relationship to one another. (MKM)