A study determined the effect of parental involvement on reading achievement of participating students. Subjects were 22 fifth-grade students in a Chicago public school who received parental involvement and 19 students in the same school who did not receive parental involvement. Subjects' scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were used in the…

A study determined whether computer assisted instruction (CAI) had an effect on students' reading achievement. Subjects were 21 randomly selected fourth-grade students at D. S. Wentworth Elementary School on the south side of Chicago in a low-income neighborhood who received a year's exposure to a CAI program, and 21 randomly selected students at…

Investigates the effect on reading comprehension when reading shorter and easier narrative text and longer and more difficult texts on the printed page as compared to reading the same narrative texts using interactive CD-ROM software displayed by the computer. Finds that reading from computers increased comprehension when subjects read longer and…

A study investigated the effectiveness of an Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Pull-out program on the reading achievement of Hispanic fifth- and sixth-grade participants. Earlier research on the effectiveness of such programs was inconclusive. Subjects, 30 randomly chosen students from a Chicago public school who received instruction…

A project designed and implemented a framework of conceptually oriented reading instruction to foster students' amount and breadth of reading, intrinsic motivations for reading, and strategies of search and comprehension. The framework emphasizes five phases of reading instruction in a content domain: observing and personalizing, searching and…

This study examined the effects of three reading programs on the reading comprehension and vocabulary of 895 fifth graders and sixth graders. One program used a conventional basal reader; the second used the supplementary, behaviorally referenced Brentwood Educational System for Testing (BEST) and conventional basal reading materials; the third…

Two studies examined the effectiveness of the Multicultural Reading and Thinking Program (McRAT), in which teachers infuse higher-order thinking strategies and performance-based assessment into classroom instruction. Four broad categories of thinking skills are included: analysis, comparison, inference/interpretation, and evaluation. In the first…

The effects of an integrated language arts instructional program on reading comprehension skills of learning lab students were examined using the Analytical Reading Inventory, and their attitudes toward recreational and academic reading were assessed using the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey. Subjects were at-risk fifth and sixth grade…

An improvisational dramatics program was developed to improve the reading achievement and school attitudes of disadvantaged elementary school children. The program, based on the rationale that encouraging self-awareness and creative self-expression will improve communication skills, reading achievement, and attitudes, was used with 141 fourth,…

A study examined the effect of an alternative language arts program designed to encourage children to take up reading and writing in ways that they find personally, socially, and politically relevant. Throughout a school year, the development of the alternative language arts program in a third/fourth grade classroom in an urban school was…

A study investigated how students felt about the "extra" reading activities and opportunities offered to them through an after-school recreational reading program. Ten fifth-grade students who were deemed most critically in need in terms of academic progress were observed in the after-school reading activities and were interviewed. Six…

A study investigated the effects of a teacher inservice program on teaching fourth grade students the functional relationship between questions and the response information to which they refer. Ten teachers and 180 of their students participated in the study. Three of the teachers participated in a traditional half-day teacher workshop on…