Described is the EDL "Learning 100" adult-oriented communication skills program used in the Wyandanch community of New York's Suffolk County. Using one full-time reading specialist and two full-time aides, the program divided 100 disadvantaged, minority group junior high school students into 16 sections, each meeting for different…

During 1970 and 1971, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) conducted its first assessment of reading, measuring the achievement of specific reading objectives by individuals aged 9, 13, 17, and 26-35. In 1974, the Right to Read Effort directed that a Mini-Assessment of Functional Literacy (MAFL) be conducted to determine basic…

The usefulness of miscue analysis as a teaching organizer for diagnostic and evaluative remedial reading instruction was investigated in a sample of 28 black high school students. The students were divided into a control group of 14 pupils and two experimental groups of seven students each: an intensive class needing individual instruction and an…

The effects of a prescribed, sequential program of reading and mathematics readiness activities were investigated in an experimental study of 229 middle-class kindergarten children. Eight of 16 kindergarten classes received the experimental treatment for six months; the other eight served as a control group. Readiness tests were given before and…

A stratified random sample of 70 pupils was selected from 261 children from three elementary schools, who had completed one year of formal reading instruction. To investigate whether visual discrimination or visual-motor development was more closely related to reading achievement, tests of reading achievement, intelligence, visual-motor abilities,…

The relationship between level of cognitive functioning at the beginning of first grade and level of reading achievement at the end of first grade was investigated in a sample of 325 children. The EITS Concept Assessment Kit-Conservation was used to classify the children as being in the preconceptual stage, the intuitive stage, or the concrete…

The effect of individual teacher-student conferences on reading achievement, attitude toward reading, and amount of reading was investigated in separate samples of third and fourth graders, none of whom had previously had such teacher-student conferences. Results indicated significant differences between experimental and control groups at the…

A three-school study suggests that more intensive teacher effort, more attention to contriving successful pupil reading experiences, and freer delivery of "payoffs" to pupils who are reading, offer the possibility of modifying pupil attitudes about reading. (Author/RL)

Provides teaching strategies that not only give students extrinsic feedback, but also help students to develop a functional intrinsic feedback system, so that they can "self-monitor" their reading performance. (RL)

An independent statewide study of 4,735 elementary schools, conducted after three years of the Early Childhood Education Program (ECE) in California, indicates that ECE schools have lower reading scores in grades 2 and 3 when compared to non-ECE schools. Five potential causes for this discrepancy are discussed. (CP)

Schools in California's Early Childhood Education Program (ECE) have lower reading achievement than non-ECE schools; furthermore, schools which are both ECE and Title I score below all others. Three alternative policies are discussed: (1) continued expansion; (2) gradual termination; and (3) stable funding, explaining score discrepancies, and…

Describes a study in which poor readers gained more on a standardized reading test when they read books rather than comics, while good readers made similar gains using either comics or books. With comics, poor readers apparently spent more time looking at pictures and less time reading. (MKM)

A model relating nonintellectual behavior to first and second grade reading performance is supported. The three dimensions include: (1) behaviors reflecting adaptation to school; (2) individual differences in emotional states; and (3) individual differences in interpersonal behavior. These affective behaviors are measured using Lambert's Pupil…

Reading skills, general ability, and academic achievement were studied in El Salvadoran junior high school students who had recently acquired a television. There were no obvious effects on short-term achievement, but consistent negative effects on reading improvement were found. In the most disadvantaged students, general ability growth was…

The relative power of several variables in predicting school reading achievement was considered. Issues were raised concerning the efficacy of altering the resources allocated to a school or changing the social and racial composition of the student body as a strategy for raising achievement levels. (EVH)