The reading program of the Reading Public Schools encompasses skills which facilitate reading a wide variety of materials, reading as a source of enjoyment, and reading as a lifelong activity. The goals for each student address word recognition skills, comprehension, reading skills needed to function in society, reading skills for individual…

A functional reading program, as distinct from the standard middle school reading program, specifically ensures that all students will acquire the reading skills necessary for survival in our society. Survival reading behaviors to be achieved include the ability to read labels on packages, to locate references in a newspaper, or to translate…

This two-volume curriculum guide, designed to meet the functional reading needs of Maryland's 182,000 public school students in grades one through twelve, contains objectives, activities, and materials for classroom use. The guide, part of a reading program started in 1972 and described in "Effective Reading Programs...," is used by…

Three issues related to improving basic skills in this nation are discussed in this paper: the definition of "basic literacy skills" and the number of Americans who are purportedly illiterate, what evidence exists that minorities in the United States really have a more serious problem than others in acquiring basic literacy skills, and…