This article analyzes the various types of information that alternative assessment and traditional assessment practices provided in an English foreign language (FL) reading course for graduate students at a public university in Medellín, Colombia. This study followed the principles of qualitative research, and a case study was used as a research…

Great progress has been made in learning how to provide more responsive instructional and behavioral supports to students through efforts in Response to Intervention and Positive Behavior and Intervention Supports. This article presents information and data on a longitudinal study designed to accelerate first graders at-risk for reading…

The evolution of multi-tier systems of support (MTSS) for both academics and behavior has reflected the diverse interests of those leading implementation efforts, the influence of various state and local regulatory requirements, and differing funding methods and priorities. These variations have naturally led to many different pathways for…

Is there an achievement gap for online reading ability based on income inequality that is separate from the achievement gap in traditional, offline reading? This possibility was examined between students in two pseudonymous school districts: West Town (economically advantaged) and East Town (economically challenged; N = 256). Performance-based…

This study investigated the degree to which the quality of teachers' language modeling contributed to reading achievement for 995 students, both English language learners and native English speakers, across developmental bilingual, dual language, and monolingual English classrooms. Covariates included prior reading achievement, gender, eligibility…

Catch Up® Literacy is a structured one-to-one literacy intervention for pupils between the ages of 6 and 14 who are struggling to learn to read. It teaches pupils to blend phonemes (combine letter sounds into words), segment phonemes (separate words into letter sounds), and memorise particular words so they can be understood without needing to use…

This 2015 Brown Center Report (BCR) represents the fourteenth edition of the series since the first issue was published in 2000. It includes three studies. Like all previous BCRs, the studies explore independent topics but share two characteristics: they are empirical and based on the best evidence available. The studies in this edition are on the…

The topic of Pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) education has become very well known throughout the nation, especially with the ever-increasing pressures for schools to produce better and brighter students. Schools are challenged to educate all children adequately, no matter their background (race, socioeconomic status, parental education level, etc.) or…

In this technical report, we document the development and piloting of easyCBM reading measures aligned to the Common Core State Standards, designed for use in screening students at risk for reading difficulty and monitoring their progress as they develop reading skills. The measures, which assess students' ability to respond to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships that may exist among mean scores on the math and reading portions of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) of eighth grade gifted students of different gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Significant changes have been made to Georgia's gifted identification procedures over the last…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a Direct Instruction summer reading intervention program designed to minimize summer reading regression. The summer intervention program targeted the lowest quartile of readers in grades kindergarten through third grade from a suburban school district over a three-week period before…

This was a study of differential item functioning (DIF) for grades 4, 7, and 10 reading and mathematics items from state criterion-referenced tests. The tests were composed of multiple-choice and constructed-response items. Gender DIF was investigated using POLYSIBTEST and a Rasch procedure. The Rasch procedure flagged more items for DIF than did…

Test anxiety often interferes with a reliable evaluation of language learning, frustrating teachers and students alike. Most researchers have found a significant inverse relation between anxiety and written test performance. Although this situation leads to a distortion of test scores, suggestions for treating and coping with test anxiety have…

The important yet under-researched role of item writers in the selection and adaptation of texts for high-stakes reading tests is investigated through a case study involving a group of trained item writers working on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). In the first phase of the study, participants were invited to reflect in…

In a 3-year longitudinal study, we examined the relationships between oral language development, early training and reading acquisition on word-identification and reading-comprehension tests administered to a sample of 687 French children. Hierarchical linear models showed that both phonological awareness and oral comprehension at the age of 4…