Observes 32 British primary schools during the academic year 1999-2000. Celebrates effective whole-school strategies for literacy, and confident approaches to the National Literacy Strategy. Features schools where achievements in literacy, and particularly in writing, are less secure. Suggests that these schools often share a conscientious, but…

Compares reading and spelling development of native Dutch-speaking children and minority children in the first two grades. Finds that the minority children kept up with the native Dutch-speaking children on word blending and word decoding tasks, but not on spelling and reading comprehension. Suggests that children learning to read in a second…

A number of recent national studies of student achievement in secondary school have reported differences between the Australian states and territories. State differences are often viewed as insubstantial or as simply reflecting sociodemographic factors, or differences between the states in the grades or ages of the students sampled. In this…

Much of the research regarding diagnosing children as LD with responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) has examined methods to identify children as non-responsive. The current study examined the dual discrepancy (DD) definition in which children score low on a post-intervention reading measure and score below their peers in reading growth rates. Four…

Growth in Test of Cognitive Skills (TCS) scores and Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) reading, math, and total achievement scores from 3rd to 10th grade was studied in 328 public school students in a middle-class suburban community. Surprisingly, groups differing in ability and achievement in 3rd grade made parallel progress over time,…

The assessment records detailing the reading and spelling performance of a group of male juvenile justice detainees admitted over a 3-month period were examined in an attempt to quantify the basic literacy levels of juvenile offenders. Results of student self-ratings of their reading ability were also analysed. The participants comprised 68 males…

The article presents the literacy achievement of Norwegian minority students, their reading habits, and their enjoyment of reading based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000 study. Aspects of their family background and attitudes towards school are related to literacy achievement results. A comparison between Denmark,…

The purposes of this article are to discuss several approaches to reading instruction and to explore how students' learning-style preferences impact upon their achievement. The authors recommend learning-styles specific interventions to guide all students in their journey to literacy. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

Children listen, act out and recite nursery rhymes and thus learn about rhyming words, absorb the rhythm of English language, and begin to develop speech sound awareness in an interactive and fun way, which can further enhance reading achievement. Encouraging children to dramatize the rhymes leads to role plays which uses basic vocabulary sight…

Literacy games are just another strategy in the ultimate goal to increase reading and overall student academic performance. Activities such as the Fall reading game, which focuses on the Fall season, which encourage reluctant readers to take the beginning steps toward developing the skills they would need to become accomplished readers are…

If students were as engaged in reading as they are in video games, television, and sports, the world would be rife with proficient readers. Using a variety of instructional strategies, teachers can make the reading experience more meaningful, increase comprehension, and build proficiency. Mastering cognitive skills can change student reading from…

In this article, the author argues that maintaining the SATs regime and all it has done to damage students and teachers represents something unforgivable in the education policy of the government. He contends that a way must be found to rid the schools of SATs and all that they embody, and replace them with something more worthy of students and…

Research shows that boys have a tougher time that girls learning to read, and they score lower in reading achievement tests. The school literacy initiative was to help reduce the gender gap in reading and get boys in grades 4-6 excited about reading. To achieve this goal, the Cool Guys Reading Club, promoting reading as a cool activity, was born.…

The double-deficit hypothesis provides a framework for identifying students at-risk for persistent reading difficulties. I examined the temporal stability of four double-deficit subtypes (no-deficit, naming-speed deficit, phonological deficit, and double-deficit) in 197 low-performing, first-grade readers. Concurrent analyses in fall and spring…

Recent research on effective schools (e.g., Pressley et al., 2001) identified consistent associations between students' literacy achievement and teacher practice. In this study, the author extended those correlational findings by conducting a controlled experiment to test the claims about 1 practice recommended by recent effective schools…