Improving reading instruction is one of the hottest topics in K-12 education today. It is also one of the most complex, encompassing pedagogy, policy, and politics -- all rooted in a long history of arguments about the best way to teach kids to read. This analysis is a primer on the "Science of Reading" and efforts to implement it across…

As a result of the Reading First Program of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the view of reading has narrowed. Individual state's Reading First professional development programs, and hence reading teachers across the United States, have spent the six years since the funding of the program in 2002 focusing beginning and developmental reading on…

Survey of teacher attitudes toward reading instruction at the primary level provides several ideas for improving reading programs. (RB)

Reports on a survey of 40 school districts in Texas showing that they needed approximately 3,500 teachers of developmental reading, 130 administrators of reading programs, and 290 clinical personnel in reading. (FL)

A study examined the leadership and management of reading programs from the viewpoint of principals and reading teachers. A questionnaire designed to describe and evaluate the reading programs in their schools was completed by 153 principals and teachers from public and private schools. Analysis of the results indicates that the nation's reading…

The "Epistle" is the publication forum of the professors of reading teacher educators a special interest group of the International Reading Association. In this issue "Doctoral Programs in Reading: Organization and Faculty," by Robert Palmatier and Anthony Manzo, reports on the results of a survey of a sample of 17 programs graduating doctorates…

The purpose of this study was to develop a conceptual model which may be used by administrators and teachers to implement a program designed to improve reading instruction in the content areas in secondary schools. Nine goals were extracted and one goal was extrapolated from the literature and placed in an open-ended opinionnaire. Principals,…

An account of the Barking Reading Project designed to prepare classroom teachers (instead of reading specialists) to respond to children with severe reading difficulties. The subject of a two-year government research study, the project's findings endorse initiatives that promote classroom teacher ability to make good teaching decisions relating to…

Poses six unanswered questions in need of research that concern school reading programs. Questions address (1) advisability of a uniform sequential reading series, (2) relative effectiveness of materials, (3) generalists vs. specialists, (4) usefulness of workbooks, (5) permanent assignment of class reading texts, and (6) parental involvement. (TE)

Investigates the effectiveness of a program that provides diagnostic and remedial services for individuals with severe reading difficulties and professional growth for reading and resource specialists at all levels. Finds that students who made substantial progress in a special remediation program did not continue to progress at the same rate in…

This yearbook contains papers which relate to issues in administering, supervising, researching, teaching, implementing, assessing, and strengthening programs and approaches in reading. The 22 papers and their authors are as follows: "Reading in Early America" (Ruskin Teeter); "Looking Back for the Future: Amish Literacy and Its…

On October 11, 1958, The "Committee for a College Reading Association" held a college reading conference at LaSalle College and took the first formal steps to organize a "College Reading Association". This association consists primarily of those professionally interested in a forum for college reading programs in the northeast…

Articles in this yearbook address the problems associated with how reading research informs practice. Articles, listed with their authors, are as follows: (1) "Reading Research into Policy and Practice: Practitioner's Viewpoint" (Deborah L. Thompson); (2) "Michigan's Reading Program: A Decade of Change" (Elaine M. Weber); (3)…

Eighteen first grade reading classes in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn were studied for differences in teacher verbal behavior in various types of reading programs. Nine of the classes were using the Direct Instructional System for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading (DISTAR) and nine of the classes were using the less structured…

Reports on a study that investigated the changes in roles and activities of reading specialists in an in-class program as compared to the pull-out program they had previously run. (FL)