This transnational comparative study between Costa Rica and the United States provides an in-depth understanding of the similarities and differences of the early literacy practices of educators in the Pre-Kindergarten to Kindergarten classroom settings. Drawing upon Costa Rica's curricular approach to Early Childhood Education, based upon the…

Researchers report that early intervention can reduce and eliminate reading difficulties for early readers. What Works Clearinghouse evaluated several phonological awareness interventions, but only one had positive effects on alphabetics and one had potentially positive effects on phonological processing and alphabetics. Additionally, the most…

The literacy growth of 260 second-grade English learners (ELs) with varying degrees of English language proficiency (e.g., Beginning, Early Intermediate, Intermediate, Early Advanced and Advanced English language proficiency) was assessed with English literacy skill assessments. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills measures were…

This comparative study examines relationships between phonemic awareness and Spanish reading skill acquisition among three groups of Spanish-speaking first and second graders: children in Mexico receiving reading instruction in Spanish and children in the United States receiving reading instruction in either Spanish or English. Children were…

State and local assessment data from 117 students in one school in the California Central Valley were examined to determine how much participation in a kindergarten through second grade multitiered reading intervention model contributed to third grade reading achievement, over and above the demographic factors of ethnicity, socioeconomic status,…

Associations among children's writing and alphabetic skills were examined in a sample of 502 prekindergarten children who were at risk of academic failure because they came from poor families, spoke a language other than English at home, or had an identified disability. In this sample of children at risk of school failure, 16% had an identified…

For children with language challenges, little is known about effective early reading interventions, because most studies have used language scores as exclusionary criteria. We randomly assigned 78 kindergartners with poor language skills to small group reading interventions that included phonemic awareness, alphabetic understanding, and oral…

Argumentative writing is a challenging communication task that calls upon sophisticated cognitive and linguistic abilities. Pre-adolescents (n = 80; mean age = 11;10; range = 10;6-13:5) were asked to write an argumentative essay on the controversial topic of training animals to perform in circuses. Additionally, they were asked to solve a set of…

Students entering school with little knowledge of English do not have the foundation in place to develop reading skills. This lack of foundation puts English Learners at a disadvantage that they struggle to overcome. The purpose of the quantitative study was twofold: (a) to determine whether measures of phonemic awareness are predictive of end of…

To determine the extent to which knowledge of evidence-based reading instruction and mathematics is assessed on licensure tests for prospective special education teachers, this study drew on information provided by Educational Testing Service (ETS), the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, and National Evaluation Systems (now…

This study documents the implementation of research-based strategies to minimize the occurrence of reading difficulties in a first-grade population. Three strategies were implemented: (a) A system of progress monitoring was used to assess student progress and skill acquisition; (b) instruction was characterized by high intensity through the use of…

Suggesting that the contention that phonemic awareness must be taught directly and that children need explicit systematic instruction in phonics is less of a scientific "fact" than an exercise in political persuasion, this book presents the story of the political campaign that is taking place to change the minds of Americans about how…

Describes program in the Central School District in Rancho Cucamonga, California, that focuses on improving the phonemic awareness skills of special-needs K-2 students through the intervention of regular classroom teachers trained to diagnose and remediate phonemic weaknesses. (Contains 11 references.)

This scholarly journal, an official publication of the Reading Recovery Council of North America, provides an interdisciplinary forum on issues related to the acquisition of language, literacy development, and instructional theory and practice. Articles in Volume 7, Numbers 1 and 2 (comprising volume 7) are: "The Why? What? When? And How? of…

A study examined the construct and predictive validity of phonemic awareness to determine the strength of the relationship between phonemic segmentation and auditory abstraction and to determine which of the two measures provided the best prediction of word recognition ability. Data were gathered from 65 first-grade children from 2 public…