Professional learning communities (PLC) are one strategy aimed at facilitating teacher professional development, with a focus on increasing student achievement. This mixed methods study investigated the impact of professional learning on student achievement. A total of 6 teachers and 121 students recruited from the third and fifth grades of a…

Calculation fluency weaknesses are a key characteristic of children with mathematics difficulties. The major aim of this dissertation was to uncover early predictors of calculation fluency weaknesses in second graders. Children's performance on number sense tasks in kindergarten along with general cognitive abilities, early literacy skills, and…

The purpose of the study was to understand reading tutors' perceptions of the effectiveness of tutorial programs on reading achievement of at-risk students in a South Texas school district. Fifty-eight reading tutors tutoring at-risk students in grades 3-8 were asked to complete a survey entitled "Reading Tutor Survey" and…

This longitudinal experimental study investigated the reading progress of students with IQs ranging from 40 to 69 (i.e., range for students with mild or moderate mental retardation or intellectual disabilities [ID]) across at least two academic years, as well as the effectiveness of a comprehensive reading intervention for these students across…

The school involved in the study is a diverse, faith-based, private school located in a large Midwestern city. Within the school, reading skills vary considerably. Typically, decoding and word skills are not widely taught after the third grade. Sixteen Junior High students who underachieve in reading were given additional instruction using the…

Using emergent motivation theory, this study analyzes the relationships between high school students' perceptions of their reading skills, task challenge, and personal control over assigned reading activities and their reading engagement (i.e., interest, enjoyment, and concentration) during science instruction. The study also examines how…

This study examined the effect of a quasi-experimental project on fifth grade English learners' achievement in state-mandated standards-based science and English reading assessment. A total of 166 treatment students and 80 comparison students from four randomized intermediate schools participated in the current project. The intervention consisted…

We addressed whether the degree of structure of reading content delivery to the children or degree of professional development support for the teachers was related to kindergarten through second-grade students' 2-year reading growth in high-poverty, low-performing schools. There were four categories of data sources: (a) classroom,…

This study replicates research on the efficacy of a repeated reading intervention with word-level instruction for students in Grades 2 and 3 with low to moderate fluency skills, examines differences between treatment implementers, and tests unique contributions of treatment-related variables on outcomes. Students from 13 schools were randomly…

This longitudinal study examined the predictive associations between cumulative multidomain risk factors and cognitive (IQ), academic (reading fluency), and social adaptive outcomes at 8 to 9 years among 190 children with or without familial risk for dyslexia. Other risk factors included parental and neurocognitive risks assessed when the children…

This article reports an evaluation of a reading remediation program delivered to 151 high-risk students in a public school setting. Implementation fidelity was assessed by the amount of time each child was exposed to the program. Despite receiving fewer than the recommended hours of instruction, analyses of standard achievement scores indicated…

The purpose of the study was to investigate (a) the prevalence of word callers in elementary school, (b) the accuracy of teachers' word caller nominations, and (c) teachers' conceptualization of reading fluency and reading comprehension. To this end, 2 cross-sectional studies of second- and third- (N = 868) and of third- and fifth-grade (N = 202)…

A research study, mainly based on the notion of "scientific literacy" from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 assessment framework, was carried out obtaining data from the administration of an open written questionnaire with items covering three central scientific processes--"describing, explaining and…

This article describes how Readers Theatre was implemented as an engaging means for reading fluency instruction in a second-grade classroom. A weekly Readers Theatre format was utilized over the course of a school year. The format was added to the existing literacy program. Data collected during the school year revealed significant gains in…

Federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 are prompting elementary schools to carefully monitor early literacy outcomes. The shift toward monitoring early literacy outcomes requires the identification of valid sublexical fluency measures. In the current study, sublexical…