The "Washington English Language Proficiency Assessment" (WELPA) is a No Child Left Behind (NCLB)-compliant instrument that is used in Grades K-12 as a formal and standardized method of measuring language proficiency. The test results provide important information for classifying English Language Learners (ELLs) and subsequently for…

This study investigated the effects that critical literacy instruction had on comprehension in a seventh grade reading class. Numerous studies have examined critical literacy instruction in the classroom, as well as effective methods of comprehension instruction; however, few studies have combined these two lines of inquiry. Therefore, the purpose…

This paper presents findings of an efficacy trial examining the effect of a multi-tiered instruction and intervention model on first grade, at risk students' reading outcomes. Schools (n = 16) were randomly assigned to the treatment or control condition. In the fall of Grade 1, students were assigned to an instructional tier on the basis of SAT-10…

This study investigated the use of the pre-instruction of vocabulary in order to improve elementary students' reading comprehension of a narrative text. Three classes of second, fourth, and sixth graders were pre-taught meanings of twenty different vocabulary target words for three consecutive weeks. The pre-teaching included four days of rich…

Research has shown that the effect of marginal glosses on reading comprehension and vocabulary retention is a controversial issue. The purpose of this study was to investigate this issue among Iranian university EFL students. Three types of glosses were applied in this study: single gloss in participants' first language (SL1G), single gloss in…

There are a number of detailed requirements for gifted screening, referral and eligibility specified under State Board Rules and School Board Rules. In all of these areas, explicit mention is made of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores as being integral components. The FCAT scores used for these purposes prior to 2008 were…

Since the National Reading Panel report and passage of No Child Left Behind, one particular reading instrument, "Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills" (DIBELS), has gained nationwide attention. As a result, DIBELS has been used in thousands of schools across the nation as a means of early identification, intervention, and…

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between technology skills and academic achievement among eighth-grade students. Previous studies investigated the relationship between the use of technology as a teaching tool and student outcomes, but none had specifically examined students' technology skill competencies with…

Methods and teaching tools have been researched to determine if they prove to be successful in effectively teaching the underprepared. This study was conducted to compare the differences in the utilization of alternative labeling on study guides to determine if the usage affects the outcome on participant's test scores. A quasi-experimental design…

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for the 21st Century Learner do not just pay lip-service to the value of reading. They have been aligned with the Common Core standards that were derived from, and now influence, state standards-based tests, such as the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) reading tests. It is…

Local school districts often stagger daily start times for their schools in order to reduce busing costs. This paper uses data on all middle school students in Wake County, NC from 1999 to 2006 to identify the causal effect of daily start times on academic performance. Using variation in start times within schools over time, the effect is a two…

This article reports on findings from a review of statewide large-scale test blueprints. The qualitative and descriptive numerical review of themes found in state blueprints provides information on trends in statewide reading assessments. These trends are then set against the backdrop of testing accommodations for students with disabilities.…

The article compares three different methods to estimate effects of task characteristics and to use these estimates for model-based proficiency scaling: prediction of item difficulties from the Rasch model, the linear logistic test model (LLTM), and an LLTM including random item effects (LLTM+e). The methods are applied to empirical data from a…

The present study examined competing models of the bi-directional influences of anxiety and reading achievement. Participants were 153 ethnically-diverse children (84 male, 69 female) from general education classes evaluated in the winter and spring of their first-grade academic year. Children completed standardized measures of reading achievement…

The focus of this paper is on the assessment of the two main processes that children must acquire at the single word reading level: word recognition (lexical) and decoding (nonlexical) skills. Guided by the framework of the dual route model, this study aimed to (1) investigate the impact of item characteristics on test performance, and (2)…