In the early 1990s good readers in low-achieving countries saw reading mostly as a difficult, effortful process while those in high-achieving countries saw reading more as a pleasant, imaginative activity: for them reading was first and foremost enjoyable. This paper attempts to elucidate this concept of reading as enjoyment and tries to determine…

Teachers will use this edition, completely updated from the important 1997 publication, to make sound decisions about instructional programs and materials. They'll find a broad and balanced perspective for building a practice around the best possible evidence-based reading research. This new edition includes: Expanded core understandings with…

Reading attitude has been of great concern since the 1960s. A sex-appropriate attitude toward reading can help learners become effective readers. A study compared the sex differences in attitudes toward reading among seven different Jewish groups. The groups included university students and adults from Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox…

A study evaluated comparatively the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) Interactive Test and Advantage Learning Systems' STAR Reading Computer-Adaptive Standardized Test. Due to the different methods used for collecting and calculating norm-referenced scores in the two tests, scale score measures of reading performance were used for the comparative…

This report, the sixth in a series developed by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) examining the impact of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act 2001, discusses Reading First, which replaces the Reading Excellence Act. The report states that Reading First, a voluntary program, aims at having all children achieve reading proficiency by the…

This paper, which presents the transcript of a working conference session on elementary and secondary education, explores the logic of scientifically-based evidence or research and strives to begin to understand both its definition as well as its intent. The paper also addresses how to begin to put this into practice and how to begin to suggest…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of strategically teaching metacognitive skills to high-, medium-, and low-achieving fourth grade students, and how it influenced their ability to comprehend grade level texts. Nine children participated in the experimental group, and nine were selected for the control group. A pre/post miscue…

Richard Hoggart calls for "creative reading"--meaning "recognizing that some books are better than others." Those influenced by Paulo Freire call for "critical reading," meaning that what matters is that readers are encouraged to "read the word and the world." Hoggart and Freire give a clear idea of what…

In English, the word 'to' functions as a preposition (e.g., 'to the store') and also as part of an infinitive (e.g., 'to go'). Two experiments investigated how the word 'to' is resolved by fluent undergraduate student readers. Readers comprehended sentences that contained the word 'to' preceded by sentence context that either did or did not…

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) promotes excellence and equity in education by conducting research and demonstration projects, collecting statistics, disseminating information, and providing technical assistance to those working to improve education. OERI supports two major research and…

Interest in adults' everyday reading practices has a lengthy history in the study of the psychology of reading. Several studies have examined the extent of, and variability in, adults' reading activities. Different social contexts have been shown to influence the type of reading performed. The present study examined the reading patterns and…

Briefly defined, Reading Recovery is a tutorial for children who are having difficulty learning to read and write after approximately one year of school. Although it is usually described as an early intervention program, Reading Recovery defies a simple definition, since there are layers of intersecting variables. This educational report…

Since one way to study a non-reading primary child's phonics knowledge is to examine his/her invented spelling, a researcher's quandary led to a quasi-experimental design study, employed to answer three questions: (1) Do primary non-readers possess phonics knowledge? (2) Do primary non-readers possess phonemic awareness? and (3) Do primary…

There is a convergence of research evidence pointing to the critical role good phonics decoding skills play in good reading; however, there is no convergence in the research on precise development of reading strategies or on types, intensity, or duration of appropriate phonics instruction. Five unscientific assertions are often cited in phonics…

This report describes one of a series of pilot studies conducted to evaluate the instructional effectiveness of the "Harcourt Reading" program. This particular study focused on 7 kindergarten classes that started the study in the fall of 1999 and continued throughout the entire academic year. Students were taught selected themes using the…