This qualitative phenomenological research study used narrative inquiry to explore teachers' perceptions of their students' reading proficiency as demonstrated on the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System's reading test. Ten teachers participated in the study, and responses pertaining to their perceptions of reading instruction and…

This study explores two approaches to directly measuring the quality of instruction: teachers' assignments with student work and focused lesson observations. The technical quality and potential feasibility of these approaches for measuring instruction in large numbers of classrooms are compared within two different content areas (reading…

Standardized tests are increasingly used to determine students' growth in reading comprehension. In some U.S. school districts, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has led to a focus on multiple-choice questions to better prepare students for these types of tests. Even though such questions can provide some important information, they do not…

The use of the cloze procedure to determine instructional reading levels for pupils in grades 4, 5, and 6 was investigated. For each grade, 50 subjects were selected who, on the basis of teacher judgment, were reading at their respective grade levels. The Botel Reading Inventory, Form A (Word Opposites) served as the criterion for instructional…