This study explored the relationship between an increase in the percentage of certified teachers and gains in performance on reading and mathematics achievement tests among New York City Schools Under Registration Review (SURR) elementary and middle schools. It examined whether the percentage of certified teachers related to student outcomes…

The goal of this study was to describe and measure the effects of continuous, as-needed intervention in reading for 92 children in Grades 1-2, to determine whether the severity of reading disability (RD) could be significantly reduced in the catchment schools. The authors hoped that this kind of professional development would help to discriminate…

This speech by the United States Secretary of Education questions why so many American students are failed by the nation's educational systems. The speech cites data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) which finds that fewer than a third of the country's fourth graders can read proficiently at grade level. It also reports…

Southwest Educational Research Laboratory's (SEDL's) reading project examines early literacy in Grades K-2 and the prevention of early reading failure. The goals of this effort include the following: developing a framework of the cognitive foundations of learning to read that organizes research information; using that framework to organize…

Encouraging teachers to utilize procedures and techniques that help their students become active, willing lifelong readers, this handbook has been compiled to serve as a guide for integrating the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment's (PSSA) definition of reading as a dynamic, interactive process into classroom practice. The handbook…

This executive summary reports on the number of students not reading on grade level in all second and third grades throughout Louisiana. The report notes the provisions of the legislation that requires such data be generated, and discusses selection of the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) as the uniform assessment instrument to be…

This work investigates the relationship between the programmatic and classroom instructional factors of schools and students' reading and writing achievement in 14 high-poverty schools. The study finds that schools which rated higher on a scale of collaborative leadership showed greater student growth in reading fluency and writing. Classroom…

This report presents the results of Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) students on the North Carolina End-of-Grade (EOG) multiple-choice tests from May and June 2001. The EOG tests have several components, but all are designed to measure student achievement of the knowledge and skills of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for…

In response to the need for internationally comparable student achievement data, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) launched the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA represents a commitment by the members of OECD to monitor the outcomes of education systems in terms of student achievement. This…

The fifth Assessment of Achievement Programme (AAP) survey of students' attainment in English language was carried out in 1998 by two English specialists from Edinburgh University (Scotland) working with the AAP National Coordinator. Samples of students at P4, P7, and S2 were selected to be representative of students in all mainstream schools.…

This booklet contains some examples of the assessment items used in the fifth English language survey of the Assessment of Achievement Programme (AAP). The examples in the booklet are intended to provide teachers with a clear idea of the range of items used in the survey in the hope that they will provide material for personal professional…

This paper investigates the validity of two current approaches for estimating text difficulty at the first-grade level--the Scale for Text Accessibility and Support-Grade 1 (STAS-1) and the Fountas/ Pinnell system--and analyzed student performance in relation to each. Subjects, 105 first graders in two schools, used "little books"--easy to read…

This boxed set contains a wide-range, comprehensive set of tests for measuring reading achievement and related abilities. The tests are administered individually, and norms are provided from age 4 to age 90. Special college/university norms are also provided. It consists of 10 measures. The scores from different combinations of these tests provide…

The study evaluates the influence of time devoted to reading-related classroom experiences on reading achievement for first grade children with lower versus higher IQ scores. Initially, it was anticipated that lower IQ children in classrooms with more time allocated to reading-related activities would make greater gains in word decoding skill than…

This study compares average SAT 9 reading scores of second through fifth grade English-only children in schools using "Open Court" (a program for teaching young children to read) with the scores of comparable schools using non-scripted programs in one very large urban school district in California. Findings show that schools using…