The high stakes consequences resulting from an emphasis on standardized test scores can be detrimental to adolescent readers' perceptions of themselves as readers. A single measure of reading ability provides only a small picture of what students can accomplish and what their learning needs are. This case study provides a keen insight into…

Tape Assisted Reading Programmes (TARPs), and more recently, other forms of audio recorded stories, have been used in New Zealand schools to help students with reading difficulties. Many claims are made about the positive effects of such programmes on general reading ability and progress. However, this paper, informed by research, states that such…

Beginning in elementary school, those students who struggle to acquire basic reading skills tend to demonstrate a stronger tendency towards task avoidance. As a result of their avoidant behaviors, students' reading ability progresses at a slower rate, which leads to further task evasion. The current study addressed task avoidance among…

In "Reading First" schools throughout the United States, literacy coaches administer the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) as the sole measure of fluency and then offer instructional recommendations for students with reading difficulties based on those results. However, critics of DIBELS question its accuracy for…

It is essential to provide high quality interventions designed to improve struggling readers' reading comprehension while making use of limited resources. This study explored, through an holistic, multiple-case study design, volunteer-student interactions and activities in an after school reading program utilizing minimally-trained volunteers. The…

The present study investigated the reading attitude of struggling elementary students at risk for reading failure. Twenty-nine first-grade and 32 second-grade struggling readers were given the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (McKenna & Kear, 1990). First-grade struggling readers favored more academic reading activities while second-grade…

Middle school students who score below proficient on state reading assessments are often placed in remedial reading programs that focus on phonics and decoding skills and do not acknowledge students' literate abilities. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the reading abilities of young adolescent readers. Five assessments measuring…

This research explores struggling adolescent readers' perceptions about reading. The eight students featured in this study were enrolled in a mandatory Title I remedial reading class. The purpose of the Title I intervention class was to prepare these middle school eighth graders to successfully pass the state's criterion referenced test. The…

Although schools across the country are investing heavily in computers in the classroom, there is surprisingly little evidence that they actually improve student achievement. In this paper, we present results from a randomized study of a well-defined use of computers in schools: a popular instructional computer program, known as Fast ForWord,…

This study assessed the first-year effects of Project Instruct on the acquisition of word attack skills by kindergarten children. Evaluation of the project was conducted in schools which contained a relatively large number of children classified as disabled readers. Kindergarten children in five elementary schools experienced the instructional…

This research investigated the effects of a technology based learning program on 219 5th graders' reading and technology skills. Central to the program's design is its capacity to deliver reading materials that are on students' individually differentiated reading levels. That is, on any given day all students in a classroom receive a reading…

This study used an early screening approach to determine the risk status of children in five urban schools and to monitor their reading growth over 3 years. It found that students with behavioral risk factors did better than those with academic risk factors and that the "Reading Mastery" curriculum resulted in the best growth in reading fluency.…

Reports on a program for the improvement of reading skills of children whose scores were below the 50th percentile on the reading subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test. Concludes that, in general, the program helped poor readers improve their reading skills. (SRT)

Research suggests that reading is a written language process that is learned naturally in much the same way as oral language. To test this hypothesis, a descriptive, longitudinal study was conducted of the reading development of eight kindergarten and first grade students who showed environmental print awareness but were not considered readers.…

This collection of essays explores two interpretations of "reading and the individual." One interpretation concerns the effect reading has upon an individual's self-concept and his total personality; the second interpretation relates to the methods used in teaching reading, recognizing the peculiar needs, interests, desires, abilities, and…