In this article, we argue that the "science of reading" (SOR) construct is being used to shape the future of literacy teacher preparation and silence the voices and work of literacy teacher education researchers to the detriment of quality science, quality teaching, and quality teacher preparation. First, we briefly inspect the SOR…

This report reflects a panel presentation and discussion at the 2020 Literacy Research Conference focused on the science of reading (SoR). Each panelist presents a summary of the presentation and incorporates the comments of the Literacy Research Association (LRA) members attending the session virtually and posting in the chat room. Each…

The authors used a conceptual analysis, following Foucauldian genealogy, to consider the history of Nila Banton Smith's "American Reading Instruction." The goal was to make better sense of the challenges and opportunities facing literacy instruction today and to articulate the enormous responsibilities of literacy scholars to critically…

A study described first-grade teachers' beliefs and practices about reading instruction. Drawing from interview and observational data, 16 teachers from 4 districts in south-central Texas were placed on a continuum from skills-based to literature-based in relationship to their use of the basal. Only 2 teachers were found to rely solely on the…

A study was conducted to determine if it was possible to identify and distinguish between poor readers who had a knowledge deficit and those who were somehow different (dialect speakers trying to read material in Standard English, for instance). A group of 20 fourth and fifth grade students were tested with normal prose, words in isolation, and…

Describes the progress in the development of a modified cloze technique, termed cumulative cloze, which offers greater potential than the traditional cloze task for studying the effects of contextual build-up over units of discourse larger than the sentence. (HOD)

The hypothesis of this study was that reading rate would be relatively constant (within a 15% range of the subject's mean reading rate) both within and across different difficulty levels of materials as long as the levels of difficulty remained at or below the subject's ability level. The subjects were 65 college students whose reading levels…

This paper on the nature of instruction as it has been informed by instructional research is organized into two major sections. The background section describes the origin and evolution of the research that has been conducted into teacher response toward reading miscues, while the second section relates this research to other classroom research…

Purposes a reconsideration of the traditional notions regarding reading rate and flexibility (i.e., that the good reader is a flexible reader who adjusts reading rate to the difficulty of the material or the purpose for reading) and suggests that perhaps there is no relationship between reading rate and flexibility. (JM)

Describes the results of a survey of classroom read-aloud practices in the United States. Contrasts read-aloud practices with a "model" of what they might be. (PRA)

Presents a modified replication of Austin and Morrison's classic 1963 study of the status of U.S. public school elementary reading instruction. Discusses how school and classroom libraries in the 1990s are more prevalent and better equipped, and how changes in programs and philosophy are common in the late 1990s, unlike in the 1960s. Appends the…

Discusses the outlier paradigm, then (1) reviews some major studies in reading program effectiveness at the elementary school level that have followed the paradigm (2) synthesizes findings from these studies into what they suggest are the key elements of effective reading programs (3) offers some critical commentary on the studies in question and…

Educators and politicians in Texas have played significant roles in pushing early reading instruction from one extreme position to another through shifts in textbook adoption requirements. These policy actions are shaping a national curriculum for reading. The current study looks at changes in texts for beginning reading instruction that resulted…

High school students who read poorly were given reading training using programed prose (a conversion of regular reading material to training material). Each student was given 50 to 70 hours of individualized instruction on a PLATO terminal. Measures of gain in reading ability varied according to the test given. (MKM)

To develop a historical perspective on the sources of the controversy over the appropriate place of oral reading in formal reading instruction, this paper presents a brief history of oral reading instruction as used in American schools from 1880 to the present. The paper describes in detail both classroom and clinical practices that rely on oral…