Examines whether the use of basal reading programs results in the deskilling of teachers. Provides background information and states the deskilling argument. Scrutinizes the argument by posing four questions. Concludes that the simple cause/effect relationship suggested by the deskilling argument fails to credit teachers with the intelligence and…

Reviews elementary school teachers' reliance on commercial reading materials and suggests, as an objective factor for their teacher behavior, their belief that greater managerial control over classroom instruction will solve the problems of reading programs. Traces the evolution of this assumption and discusses its ramifications. (FL)

This is a report on the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP), a research and development project designed to find ways of improving the school performance of educationally disadvantaged Hawaiian children. The project, implemented in a laboratory school setting and continuously monitored, is described as a reading instruction program for…

Two combined second and third grade classrooms were observed throughout the five weeks of a summer school program to determine what "reading instruction" was in the contextual reality of classroom life. Observers viewed approximately 20 hours of reading instruction per week. In addition, they interviewed the classroom teachers informally as the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the relationship between selected teacher personality traits and the teaching behaviors of remedial reading teachers; (2) reading program problems of beginning…