In response to legislation passed by the 1989 North Carolina General Assembly, the State Board of Education developed and initially implemented End-of-Grade Tests (EOG) for grades 3 through 8 in the areas of reading and mathematics effective with the 1992?93 school year. These curriculum-based multiple-choice achievement tests are specifically…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of parent-assisted reading on reading comprehension. The study involved the use of the paired-reading model. The teacher made a short video of herself and each child implementing the model. Parents were given the video and a short list of instructions along with a reading log. The study…

Within the context of President Bush's Reading First and Early Reading First initiatives to improve early literacy skills for preschool children and reading literacy skills for primary children, a national invitational conference on successful reading instruction was held in Washington, DC, on November 12-13, 2001. It focused on determining how…

This paper discusses how to change English-as-a-Second-Language reading instruction within Japanese senior high schools into communication, or interaction between students and the text. It focuses on the use of top-down skills to increase reading comprehension, noting that Japanese teachers tend to naturally emphasize bottom-up skills and neglect…

A practical new text with ideas that can immediately be put to use in the classroom. This book goes beyond a thematic link between reading and music to an examination of those skills that are directly parallel in music learning and text reading. Including instructional examples, it provides specific strategies for music and reading teachers to…

This comprehensive, user-friendly guide meets a growing need for school psychologists and other practitioners called on to work with struggling readers and their teachers. Presented are a systematic framework and a wealth of step-by-step strategies for targeting key areas of literacy development: phonological awareness, fluency, and comprehension.…

This article reports the results of a meta-analysis of 20 research articles containing 89 effect sizes related to the use of digital tools and learning environments to enhance literacy acquisition. Results (weighted effect size of 0.489) demonstrate that technology can have a positive effect on reading comprehension, but little research has…

This lesson plan based on "Freak the Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick includes the modeling and practicing of specific reading comprehension strategies, vocabulary and word study, a figurative language activity, and a selection of final projects which can be used for assessment with the accompanying rubric. During three 60-minute sessions for four…

This study describes a program for improving student's reading skills. The targeted population consisted of students in a self-contained inclusion fourth grade classroom in a rural community, located in the Midwest. The lack of reading skills had been demonstrated through standardized achievement tests and the Developmental Reading Assessment.…

This quarterly newsletter covers educational issues affecting schools in WestEd's 4-state region (Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah) and nationwide. This Summer 1999 edition contains a lead article entitled "Reading for Understanding: A Modern Urban Success Story," which describes a course in "academic literacy," developed…

This document is designed to assist classroom teachers in preparing students to complete successfully the "Alabama High School Graduation Exam" (AHSGE). The document describes the content for the language and reading comprehension portion of the AHSGE. The teaching strategies, activities, and resources contained in the document were…

This study investigated specific conditions under which out-of-scale information improves measurement precision and the factors that influence the degree of reliability gains and the amount of bias induced in the reported scores when out-of-scale information is used. In-scale information is information that an item provides for a composite trait…

Demonstrating a critical stance requires readers to stand apart from the text and consider it objectively. It involves a range of tasks including critical evaluation; comparing and contrasting; and understanding the impact of such features as irony, humor, and organization. According to this paper, the selection of appropriate literature is a…