While adolescent foundational skills interventions can be critical levers for reading improvement, district leaders, teachers, and researchers must make complex decisions about how to evaluate their effectiveness in context. In this discussion article, we explore three issues and tensions we experienced during a 2-year research-practice…

This study investigated the effects of using teacher candidate-created observation protocols based on current research on classroom practices to connect research to practice. The study examined the extent to which mentor teachers modeled current research-based practices as measured by the protocols and explored the frequency with which the…

In this paper we examine American inservice teachers' instructional methods in reading comprehension following professional development (PD), illustrating the prolonged and significant gap between research and practice in the field of reading comprehension. We explore this gap from a conceptual change perspective, positing that some level of…

The changing job market requires a sophisticated array of literacy skills that adolescents with learning disabilities reading below grade level have not yet acquired. This summary of the research on reading comprehension highlights emerging findings and related instructional conditions necessary to achieve optimal student outcomes with limited…

The article summarizes a report of the Commission on Reading which lends support (based on research findings) to many of the practices embodied in the Direct Instruction Model. The Commission recommends practices such as early teaching of reading and parent involvement that are closely tied to Direct Instruction strategies. (DB)

For the thirty-seventh year, the Research and Theory Division and the Division of Instructional Design of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) sponsored the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. This year's Proceedings…

Review of scientifically based reading research as it applies to students with hearing impairments stresses the importance of (1) early intervention, (2) active learning opportunities, (3) teaching strategies for reading fluency, and (4) applying teacher interventions such as miscue analysis. The importance of identifying and implementing…

This monograph is a synthesis of research findings of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research program concerning how children learn to read, why some children and adults have difficulties learning to read, and effective ways to help children learn to read. The review covered studies performed over the last 33 years at…

Three years after seven teachers had participated in an intensive year-long professional development experience in three multilevel reading practices (partner reading, collaborative strategic reading, and making words), all but one teacher sustained one or more of the practices at a high rate, as determined by classroom observation and interviews.…

A PILOT EXPERIMENT CONDUCTED TO TEST THE EFFECT OF A SPECIALLY DEVISED PHONIC APPROACH TO EARLY READING IS DESCRIBED. THE PHONIC METHOD USED ACHIEVED SOUND-SYMBOL REGULARITY AND HAD THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS--(1) CONSONANT GRAPHEMES EACH REPRESENTED ONLY ONE SOUND AND WERE PRINTED USING NEARLY STANDARD ALPHABETIC SYMBOLS. (2) EACH VOWEL…

A series of eight videoconferences was designed to help educational professionals improve schools by applying knowledge gained from research. During the videoconference programs, which are transmitted by satellite to facilities with receiving capacity, viewers can interact by telephone with the program presenters. Each program covers a specific…

This report summarizes results of three focus groups which examined teachers' ideas and attitudes about the utility of research on the practice of teaching reading to students with learning disabilities and about forms of communication that would make research information more useful. The focus groups were part of a larger project designed to…

A review of the research on developing reading comprehension skills in students with learning disabilities found strongest outcomes for teacher-led questioning and self-questioning strategies, text enhancement strategies, and strategies involving basic skills instruction and reinforcement. (DB)

A review of research identified features characteristic of effective reading programs, especially explicit phonics instruction integrated with vocabulary of student reading materials. Analysis of several commercially published first-grade basal reading programs found significant discrepancies between strategies supported by the literature and the…

THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF INDUCTIVE AND DEDUCTIVE APPROACHES TO THE INSTRUCTION OF WORD ANALYSIS TASKS WAS STUDIED. A NUMBER OF PHONIC AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS GENERALIZATIONS, APPLIED TO THE PRONUNCIATION OF WORDS ABOVE THE PRIMARY LEVEL IN DIFFICULTY, WERE PRESENTED TO EIGHTH- AND NINTH-GRADERS OF AVERAGE MENTAL ABILITY BUT WHO WERE WEAK IN…