Selections from the last three basal reading series produced by the Houghton Mifflin Company were examined to determine what improvements were made. One of the fundamental changes occurring in the 1971 revision ("Readers") was the replacement of grade designations with numerical levels that provided a better match between student and…

The six tables in this report rank the combinations of reading materials used in the classrooms of 34 elementary schools of Washington, D.C., during the 1976-77 academic year. The data are based on teacher reports about first through sixth grade students for whom there were both pretest and posttest scores. The tables indicate that a wide variety…

This book draws on extensive demographic information to present a portrait of the nation's reading habits. Research offers the following observations and facts: reading of serious contemporary literature is the pastime of a distinct minority; the proportion of Americans who read serious literature is between 7 and 12% and contemporary fiction,…