The much-criticized Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA) is not aligned with current Common Core literacy standards, is expensive, has a low pass rate on the first try of 66%, and keeps People of Color from joining the profession (California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 2019). The test maybe replaced with coursework. Critics…

In a mideastern US school district, culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students were not meeting proficiency on the state reading assessments. Elementary teachers in the district were expected to use culturally relevant teaching (CRT) strategies during literacy instruction to help engage and motivate culturally and linguistically…

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to determine if there were statistically significant differences between 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-grade reading teachers in the Northeast Unites States, defined as participants and nonparticipants in the LETRS® professional development, in terms of teachers' self-efficacy in student…

Literacy supports every aspect of daily life, from learning new academic knowledge to active citizenship to finding and maintaining employment, not to mention the satisfaction and pleasure that can be experienced through using literacy to participate in leisure and recreation. Recognizing the vital nature of literacy, Toews and Kurth (2019) call…

The author focuses on selecting texts for disciplinary literacy instruction in elementary grades. Disciplinary literacy instruction is a promising approach to engage students in socially and culturally relevant learning, and the selection of a variety of informational texts is important to planning this type of instruction. Currently, most…

Purpose: Digital texts are increasingly widespread and research is needed on how students use digital texts, particularly in school-based classwork. The purpose of this study is to challenges persistent myths about young people's affinity with digital tools by investigating the factors that condition or limit the ways students interact with and…

The purpose of this mixed-methods experimental study was to investigate the effects and social validity of a text structure intervention for reading and writing in upper elementary grades. Fourth- and fifth-grade teachers (N = 11) in three elementary schools were randomly assigned to implement the text structure intervention or a comprehension…

Purpose: This study investigated reading teachers' (RTs) views of speech-language pathologists' (SLPs) abilities to provide services for clients who have written language disorders. Previous research has shown SLPs often do not provide such services due to time constraints, lack of training, and their perception that other school personnel are…

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light many of the essential nonacademic functions of U.S. schools, such as meals, mental health support, and opportunities for students whose families lack resources. Yet, as Derek Gottlieb and Jack Schneider explain, schools continue to be evaluated primarily on students' academic outcomes. They call for a…

This article is based on the premise that mandated reading in literature classrooms may be perceived as an imposition and disliked by students. Attempts to address that scenario have suggested that text selection should be given more consideration to promote reading engagement, particularly by choosing texts which are familiar to the lifeworlds of…

Separating students into homogeneous groups is a common instructional practice used by elementary teachers during reading instruction. Although researchers have been studying the effects of homogeneous grouping for many decades, there is little consensus on whether grouping is an effective or equitable instructional practice. The central challenge…

When recommending a program to achieve objectives such as improving learning outcomes for middle school students, school psychologists need information about cost-effectiveness to identify the best fit for student needs and school budgets. However, few cost studies of evidence-based instructional programs exist. We compared the cost-effectiveness…

Eye-tracking studies have indicated that there are different kinds of silent reading. Simply having eyes on text does not always result in adequate comprehension. Understanding common eye-tracking measures that distinguish productive reading behaviors can help teachers promote better reading habits among students. This research synthesis…

The author, a district chief academic officer, discusses his immersion into the research on the science reading and how it informed his views on how reading instruction needed to change in his district. He emphasizes the importance of adopting a cohesive curriculum aligned to the research on early reading, particularly in the areas of phonics and…

Running records can be the assessments that teachers are looking for when searching for an efficient way to plan meaningful literacy instruction. Running records can give teachers immediate insights to guide on-the-fly prompting and teaching decisions to build reader independence. The authors use classroom examples to illustrate how taking and…