The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the broader college and career readiness agenda encourage educators, researchers, and other stakeholders to focus on preparing students for life after high school. A key emphasis is literacy, as the ability to read and comprehend written language is critical to success in college and careers.…

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of students' reading literacy, measured by the PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) test, on their performance in the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) mathematics and science tests. The data on 4,125 Italian students from 199 schools were analyzed:…

A comparison of the difficulty in underlying structure of basal reading texts with the difficulty in surface structure raises questions on the validity of the Fry Readability Formula and other traditional readability formulas. (CJ)

The possibility of changing the prosaic style of college level science textbooks to increase readability was investigated. Conclusions suggest that the readability of college textbook prose is not significantly affected by the stylistic factors employed in most readability formulas. (CJ)

Principles of cognitive psychology are used to explain the reading comprehension process. More effective diagnosis and solution of reading problems can be made by understanding the many factors involved and using a broad conceptual model, including internal and external influences, to pinpoint difficulties. (Author/CJ)

Children rated books they had read; the more recently a book was read the more likely it was to be rated as enjoyable. The findings are discussed with reference to the problems of teachers and librarians who select books for children. (Editor)

Results of stepwise regression analyses of text characteristics on learning scores revealed that the same characteristics which predict comprehension also predict new learning. (Author/MB)

Researchers examined whether there were differences in the way elementary history textbook and trade book passages were structured. Analyses of text structure in topic-similar passages from both types of books indicated trade books were more comprehensible than history textbooks by being better structured and more coherent. (SM)

To determine how television viewing affected the quality of recreational reading, logs were completed on the amount of time fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students spent on reading and on watching television. Results indicated that students who watched a lot of television and who did little reading tended to choose books of lower quality.…