The College-Level Academic Skill Test (CLAST) is part of Florida's system of educational accountability. It is an achievement test that measures students' attainment of the college-level communication and mathematics skills that were identified by faculties of community colleges and state universities. Students in community colleges and state…

This document comprises the entire output for the journal for 1998. The first article is in the form of a modified excerpt from an article by Donna I. Ali of the University of Calgary on "Multiple Intelligences and the Writing Process: Some Implications for Teaching." The article investigates why writing is difficult for some and easy for others,…

With the growing federal, state, and local policy emphasis on teacher quality and student achievement, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) investigated teacher resources and their relationship to student achievement in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. The purpose of this study was to provide policymakers with information about…

Reports a cohort analysis of achievement in reading, mathematics, and spelling for the Northern Cheyenne Behavior Analysis Model of Follow Through (Montana) for the 1979-80 school year. (FL)

Contains an assessment of the inner-city literacy crisis, a critique of rationales for reading failure based on "deficit" and "difference" type ideologies, a call for the study of successful inner-city schools, an evaluation of G. Weber's study of successful inner-city schools, and the development of an urban literacy agenda. (FL)

Reports on a study that investigated what constitutes metaphor and simile for sixth- and eighth-grade children. Discusses the implications of the findings for reading and language arts curriculum development and instruction. (FL)

Reports on several studies that examined the use of newspapers in classrooms. Cites research supporting the conclusions that newspaper training programs improved teacher attitudes toward using newspapers in the classroom and newspaper use influenced students' reading attitudes, reading interests, reading achievement, and classroom verbal…

An auditory perceptual training program for students, aged seven through nine, with auditory or reading problems, was evaluated. Although short-term auditory improvements were observed, there was no impact on reading achievement. (Author/MH)

Whether text comprehension strategies could be taught to children with poor decoding and reading skills was studied with 428 fourth graders (poor readers) and 167 students from schools for the learning disabled. Clear benefits of training were apparent at posttesting, but maintenance test performance did not show prolonged benefits, suggesting a…

Examined the validity of the pragmatic approach to test difficulty put forward by Child (1987). This study investigated whether the Child discourse-type hierarchy predicts text difficulty for second-language readers. Results suggested that this hierarchy may provide a sound basis for developing foreign-language tests when it is applied by trained…

Describes the sophisticated reading strategies of two eight-year-old boys. Notes that the boys were thought to be about average or below average in reading achievement. Concludes that the standardized measures used to judge their reading achievement penalized the boys for their working class backgrounds and for their everyday use of Caribbean…

Examined children's performance in the first two years of school so as to determine effects of parent configuration on reading and math scores. Found that children whose families had more economic resources and whose parents had higher expectations for their school performance consistently outperformed other children in reading and math. (RJM)

The Whole School Approach to Early Literacy Development program, implemented in high-needs schools in Calgary (Alberta), focused on changing school culture so that teachers, administrators, parents, specialists, and students cooperated to meet high expectations for student achievement. Participating schools committed to six requirements that…

Effectiveness of a classwide peer tutoring program was studied for low achievers with and without learning disabilities and average achievers in 20 elementary school intervention classes and 20 control classes. All types of learners in peer tutoring classrooms demonstrated greater reading progress regardless of which of three measures was used.…

This study examined the associations between the use of after-school care arrangements and adolescent competencies in 60 young Canadian adolescents. Findings revealed that, compared to those not participating, early adolescents participating in after-school care between 5 and 13 years obtained higher academic and social competency scores based on…