Differentiated instruction (DI) is recognized as a factor that could improve the reading disparity among students despite diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Few studies have been conducted that document elementary public school reading teachers' perspectives on differentiating reading instruction and selecting DI strategies for low-performing,…

Declining achievement in reading has put enormous pressure on Title I middle schools to improve adolescent literacy performance. Poor student achievement in reading has incited the development of a national initiative; therefore, Response to Intervention (RTI) was created to comprehensively change educational practices. RTI was derived from the…

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the READ 180 intervention program used in the District's middle schools yielded improvements in reading on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Reading scores, the Renaissance Star Reading assessment, and the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) assessment. The READ 180…

Background: Over the past two decades, national attention has emphasized the critical role of early literacy and language instruction in preventing reading difficulties and improved our understanding of how young children learn to read. The research has established that students who are not strong readers by Grade 3 are less likely to build…

The world community committed to support universal access to basic education in 1990. Since then, schools have been built and teachers hired and trained. Twenty years later, many more students were in primary school, but learning assessments showed that most were not learning how to read well enough to use reading to learn. The world community…

In this volume prominent scholars, experts in their respective fields and highly skilled in the research they conduct, address educational and reading research from varied perspectives and address what it will take to close the achievement gap--with specific attention to reading. The achievement gap is redefined as a level at which all groups can…

Reading fluency is one of several components of an effective reading program. One way to increase a student's reading fluency is teaching word attack skills as a way to break words down into smaller parts. Strategies, such as direct teaching of word attack skills, can make it easier for students to read unknown words. Understanding and applying…

The authors offer guidance on recognizing and resisting test-centric instruction in reading comprehension. They posit that five practices indicate a test-centric view of comprehension: when the tested content is privileged, when the test becomes the text, when annotation requirements replace strategic thinking, when test items frame how students…

The term "close reading" is problematic for English teachers, yet a heightened awareness of the role that language plays in mediating experience and social relationships is fundamental to an informed and critically engaged citizenry. This essay finds that a focus on abstracted ideological content of literary texts comes at the cost of…

At present, there is much discussion regarding the future of reading instruction at the postsecondary level. In order to contemplate the future of the field of college reading, however, we must first consider the field's history, and particularly the last several decades. The purpose of this manuscript is to explore both the external and internal…

The authors argue that nonfiction reading and writing instruction in K-12 settings must include authentic opportunities for students to seek information online. To that end, the authors provide two frameworks for thinking about information acquisition in the 21st century. The first, the intentional and incidental information continuum, describes…

In this cross-case study, we examined how two reading specialist candidates negotiated their yearlong practicum experiences in relation to university coursework and their previous teaching experience. Data sources included interviews, weekly teaching logs, and field observations. Findings reported in extended vignettes reveal how both interns were…

There is widespread concern about aspects of government policy relating to early years education. Current proposals for baseline assessment and changes to the early learning goals reveal a lack of insight into the nature of early learning, and little understanding and respect for effective early years pedagogy. Indeed, it is apparent that the…

In an article appearing in "Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal," authors Cook, Rodes, and Lipsitz (2017) make multiple misleading, misguided, and blatantly false claims about Reading Recovery® in yet another attack to discredit the most widely researched early reading intervention in the world. When you're recognized as a…

Sentence stems are widely used by teachers, but what do we know about developing sentence stems and using them effectively? Sentence stems are intended to facilitate students' participation in academic conversations and writing and support students to develop the language expected in school, but sometimes the stems do not provide the support…