Discusses the major emphases of the National Reading Research Center regarding future research and study; the types of input to the center from the reading community; the role of individual reading researchers at the center; and potential products of the center. (RS)

This paper describes the National Reading Research Center (NRRC), a federally funded center that intends to carry out research to discover what promotes readers' engagement in literacy activities, foster their critical thinking and strategic learning, and prepare them to meet the challenges of a technological age. The paper describes the mission…

An overview of the Essential Skills Program at the National Institute of Education is presented in this paper. The paper is divided into three parts. In outline form, the first part of the paper describes the history of the program since its formation in December 1973. Also included in the first part is a short discussion of a number of the major…

The National Reading Research Center (NRRC) advocates education through research that addresses the unacceptably low reading achievement of American students and the lack of equity in the achievement of mainstream and minority populations. The NRRC acknowledges four pervasive problems that will sharpen the focus of the center's work: too many…

This paper provides an overview of the Academy of Reading program (by AutoSkill International, Inc.), a comprehensive reading remediation tool designed to complement curriculum for grades K-12. It notes the computer-based approach is designed to help underachieving readers get the skills they need to become proficient, and the product includes…

Describes the rationale and structure of a research project that focused on the role of reading in second-language acquisition. Special focus is placed on the initial stages of the project as well as characteristics of the backgrounds of the students involved. (seven references) (JL)

This paper provides an overview of Houghton Mifflin's Soar to Success, a commercially published intervention program designed to accelerate reading growth for students reading below grade level in grade 3 and above. Soar to Success uses fast-paced, structured lessons focusing on comprehension and decoding strategies, is intended for use with small…

This paper examines what has been learned from research about the complex connections between literacy, technology, and learning. The beginnings of research in this area coincided with the introduction of personal computers (PCs) into educational settings in the late 1970s. For the first decade, researchers asked the kinds of questions best…

This paper reports on the creation, growth, and continual development of a teacher-researcher community formed in conjunction with the University of Georgia site of the National Reading Research Center (NRRC). The National Reading Research Center School Research Consortium (SRC) is a teacher-researcher community that includes approximately 35…

This paper provides an overview of Helping One Student To Succeed (HOSTS), a language arts program that uses one-on-one mentoring to help low-achieving students improve reading and problem-solving skills. Goals of the program include improving academic achievement in reading; building student problem-solving skills; and improving student behavior,…

This report describes and evaluates the Chapter 2 Inexpensive Book Distribution Program (IBDP), a federal program designed to motivate children from age three to high school to read, and the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) organization--the sole contractor of the IBDP. Following an executive summary, an introductory section presents basic…

This paper provides an overview of Accelerated Reader, a system of computerized testing and record-keeping that supplements the regular classroom reading program. Accelerated Reader's primary goal is to increase literature-based reading practice. The program offers a computer-aided reading comprehension and management program intended to motivate…

Noting that no one approach to reading instruction is "best" for every child, this booklet discusses the "reading styles" approach, which matches instructional approaches to each child's particular strengths and weaknesses in reading. The first section of the booklet discusses the urgency of the issue of low reading achievement…

Noting that many schools in the state of Indiana offer reading incentive programs that provide special recognition or awards to students who reach or exceed established goals in their reading programs, this booklet presents the results of a survey of the types of reading incentive programs in use. The booklet notes that the programs span all grade…

Designed for the practitioner concerned with motivating students to read, the 28 articles in this book are arranged in four sections. The articles in the first section, "Methodology," deal with how to motivate students to read. Among the topics covered in this section are the newspaper as a tool for teaching reading, comic books as motivators,…