This report analyzes the longitudinal effects of schoolwide Chapter 1 initiatives on student reading achievement in 40 elementary schools in a large urban school district. The analyses find that, compared to control students, first-graders in schoolwide projects showed no achievement effects, second-graders showed positive significant effects,…

The present study, which was drawn from a larger project in which teachers developed and implemented performance assessments in their classrooms, investigates children's perceptions of what reading and mathematics are and how they understand their teachers' knowledge of them as readers and mathematicians. Two students from each of 13 third-grade…

English language assessment of non-native speakers of English (NNS) who apply for undergraduate study in the United States is examined. The analysis focuses on: the assessment of reading in light of its importance across the undergraduate curriculum, and the establishment of a base-line level of reading proficiency to which the proficiency of NNS…

A survey was administered to 10th-grade regular biology students to diagnose the cause for low achievement on chapter tests. Survey results verified teacher suspicion that students did not read textbook assignments when designated as homework and, as a consequence, this deficiency contributed to low achievement scores. A treatment included…

A retrospective ethnographic study examined the sociocultural environments of fifth-grade Navajo children who have become successful readers. During the second month of school, six fifth-grade teachers at Fort Defiance Elementary School on the Navajo Reservation identified 66 of their 150 students as successful readers, a judgment that was…

A specialized word attack skills program was designed to increase the reading ability of a target group of seven first grade students. These youngsters, placed in an average ability classroom, were performing below county standards. The program utilized learning centers, computers, and visual-auditory activities as motivational techniques.…

The Title I Evaluation and Reporting System (TIERS) under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act first required project participation and achievement data from the states for the 1979-80 school year. Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 (ECIA) repealed the requirements for use of federally mandated…

Negative item bias is produced by the inability of preadolescent children to respond appropriately to negatively worded items on rating scales, and is hypothesized to be a cognitive-developmental phenomenon. The effect is examined with responses to the Self Description-Questionnaire (SDQ), a multifactor self-concept instrument. In study 1,…

A privately funded project that placed reading aides in the first three grades of the public schools was initiated in a rural county of Mississippi. The program provided a paraprofessional assistant reading instructor who worked under the direction of a classroom teacher to strengthen and enrich children's work in small groups or in an educational…

The assessement materials described in this report were used by the Indigenous Mathematics Project to document various achievement and cognitive development factors at five sites in Papua New Guinea. The achievement instruments are criteria-referenced and consist of the Primary Maths Achievement Test, The Test of Arithmetic Skills, and the reading…

A practicum study was conducted to raise the reading comprehension level of students at least one grade level by using Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI), and to determine the kind of student who would most benefit by the use of CAI. A control group of 35 students and three experimental groups of 19 computer students, all in fourth or fifth…

Most African Americans in urban areas are trapped in schools that are below the national norms for reading, mathematics, or both. These young people are not only shut off from written information about their own cultural heritage, but they also are least likely to learn much about others. The majority of African Americans in the United States are…

For the seventh consecutive year, the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, Form U (CTBS/U) was used to measure achievement in South Carolina public schools in the following areas: (1) reading; (2) spelling; (3) language; (4) mathematics; (5) reference skills; (6) science; and (7) social studies. Results for grades 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11 are summarized…

Evidence from existing literature suggests that the decoding and reading comprehension skills of poor readers can be improved by assisting them to read material that is too difficult for them to read by themselves--especially when the reading experiences are focused on the content of the material rather than on the words. A study examined the…

A study investigated Chapter 1 students' activities and experiences during the time allocated to reading instruction. Subjects, 119 fourth and fifth grade students in a large city school system (66 subjects receiving remedial instruction in an in-class setting and 53 in a pullout setting), were observed systematically over a four-month period…