Some techniques or strategies and principles of organization can make the teacher's task of modifying or writing curriculum materials easier. This monograph provides a step-by-step guide for writing curriculum materials, whether approaching the problem from scratch or modifying that which already exists. Chapter 1 provides the rationale, and…

Detroit's Peer Teachers as Mirrors and Monitors Project is intended to validate cost effective methods for increasing Academic Learning Time (ALT) for students in grades one through four. A major problem in this research effort has been the design of valid and reliable measures of the components of ALT. One very important component of ALT is…

A study investigated the effect of research-based instructional strategies on the reading achievement of students in grades two through five. Instructional process variables were assembled into a manual used to train 24 experimental teachers. The five categories of variables were (1) classroom environment, (2) lesson introduction, (3) lesson…

To determine the most accurate means of estimating the expected grade or reading level of 61 sixth grade students, three expectancy formulas were compared to a custom regression equation from a user friendly microcomputer program. The expectancy formulas, based in part on student I.Q. and chronological age, and the regression equations were…

Proposing that teachers can help children learn more effectively by promoting metacognition and the acquisition of problem solving strategies, this report describes research studying the effectiveness of the experimental curriculum, Informed Strategies for Learning (ISL), in increasing third and fifth grade students' reading comprehension skills.…

Teachers must continuously appraise student progress in reading achievement. Techniques to facilitate this appraisal include (1) teacher observation, (2) checklists, (3) teacher written tests, (4) criterion referenced tests, (5) standardized tests, (6) rating scales, (7) anecdotal records, and (8) conferences. Once a comprehensive program of…

The development of a modified semantic differential measure of school-related attitudes of grades 3-6 children is described and its validation involving 99 children is reported. Each of the four scales of this measure, Attitude Toward-School, -Language Arts, -Teachers, and -Arithmetic, was found to be unidimensional. Internal consistency estimates…

Developed for the Duval County Public Schools (Jacksonville, Florida), this manual gives elementary school teachers information on instructional program procedures. Section one is about the reading program and deals with placement procedures and criteria for kindergarten and first grade students, initial placement procedures for grades two-six,…

A study investigated whether 19 at-risk fifth-grade students would benefit from using Sustained Silent Reading. Ten students were exposed to 15 minutes of Sustained Silent Reading at least four times a week over the course of a school year, while nine students were not. All students were administered a pre- and post- self-concept inventory and a…

A study examined reading performance, metacognitive knowledge about reading, awareness of the conventions about print, perceptions of reading ability, and causal attributions for success and failure in reading of children with reading difficulties in Year 2 in Australia. One hundred children from the Brisbane region were involved in the…

The 1988-89 Compensatory Language Experiences and Reading--Reading Recovery (CLEAR-RR) Program of the Columbus, Ohio, public schools was implemented to provide early intervention to 283 underachieving first-grade pupils who appeared unlikely to learn to read successfully without intensive instruction. The program's two major goals were to develop…

The achievement levels of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District in mathematics, reading, and writing are reported and compared with those of students in previous years. The district enrolled 4,888 LEP students in 1988-89 (89% were Spanish speakers, 4% were Vietnamese, and 7% represented 49…

This report describes two programs in Saginaw, Michigan, that are designed to meet the special education needs of bilingual and migrant students. The focus of the report is a product evaluation using the results of students' test performance. The Section 41 State Bilingual Education Program and the Chapter 1 Migrant Education Program operated at…

Results are presented for the 1985-86 administration of achievement tests in the Atlanta (Georgia) Public Schools. The following norm-referenced, standardized tests were administered: California Achievement Tests (CAT) in kindergarten; Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) in grades 1 to 8; and Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP) in grades 9 to…

School and teacher factors associated with reading achievement are compared to items from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1985 reading assessment. Significant factors which appeared in the literature included: methods and materials, time on task, difficulty level and high teacher expectation, teacher qualifications, student…