Elderly persons (N=90) were tested for their reading ability and 126 documents from seven service agencies were analyzed for their readability. Results indicated two-thirds of the sample had reading abilities lower than eighth grade, whereas 98 percent of the documents had readability levels at or above ninth grade. (Author)

Details a study that examined whether second grade children who were achieving at various reading levels scored differently on perceptual and perceptual motor tasks. (FL)

Reports that reading achievement in the elementary grades is consistently rising and that older students may not be developing the higher level reading skills. (AEA)

Postelementary reading instruction is offered in many specialized developmental and remedial courses, but there is some awareness of reading needs in content areas and of the need for those teachers to accept responsibility. A review of the literature examines whether postelementary teachers teach reading as an integral part of their content area…

Modern educators recognize vernacular Black English as a variety of English that has its own system and rules. However, since most reading materials and school texts are in standard English, reading difficulties are often found in Black children who use a nonstandard dialect. The effects of negative teacher attitudes are described, and…

From observations of good and poor readers, it is concluded that on-task behavior is not significantly affected by whether reading is independent or teacher-directed. Good readers appear to spend significantly more time on task in contextual reading than do poor readers. (CJ)

H. Myklebust's Pupil Rating Scale (PRS) was administered to the first (N=92) and second (N=130) grades of a middle-class suburban elementary school to ascertain its effectiveness for predicting reading and arithmetic difficulties. (Author)

The resource room intervention was effective for increasing reading rates of LD children but the increased rates did not appear to be maintained in the regular classrooms. The group with the shortest stay in the resource room made significantly greater rate gains during treatment and continued during follow-up to learn at a higher rate. (Author)

Comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the reading portions of the California Achievement Tests. (JT)

Reviews studies of the relationship between television viewing and children's interest and achievement in reading; points out that the relationship is complex and that further research studies using more sophisticated measures of viewing and reading behavior need to be conducted before conclusions are made. (ET)

Investigated the predictive power of two written tests of Piagetian developmental level, The Understanding in Science Test and the Reasoning Test. Also examined the extent to which two variables, level of reading comprehension and level of field dependence-independence, were associated with performance of secondary school Australian students on…

This study compared double cross-validation replication predictive accuracies of six types of factor scores with full-rank data by utilizing data in which classroom achievement was predicted from affective and cognitive variables. Prediction was significantly more accurate for factor scores than for full-rank data. (Author/CP)

Teachers' and psychologists' ratings of children's potential performance in reading and mathematics are influenced by selected information in referral statements read prior to having objective test scores or rating scales for evaluation. (JMF)

Two experiments using varying duration exposures related reading skill in adults to initial encoding of location information. Results suggest that the role of perception in reading has been underestimated because emphasis has been on item perception, not perception of spatial location. (Author/CP)

White children scored significantly higher than Black children on the reversals test, although predictive validity coefficients were substantial for both races. Sex differences tended to be minor and of little consequence. (Author)