Critically reviews various models proposed to explain word recognition and proposes a new model that describes word processing as a gestalt phenomenon defined by the interaction of four types of context: linguistic, schematic, social, and strategic. Also discusses ways of defining good and poor readers. (GT)

Examines whether teachers treat low-achieving students differently than their high-achieving counterparts with regard to teaching higher order thinking skills. Asks whether low-achieving students gain from teaching and learning processes designed to foster higher order thinking skills. Findings indicate that while students with high academic…

Reviews Ogbu's "Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement," which explores low black academic performance in a racially integrated, upper-middle-class suburb and suggests that researchers should focus on community factors, such as how minorities interpret and respond to schooling, asserting that the…

Highlights three related risks that mobile students face in the implementation of Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act: the risk that they will not be assessed or counted for school accountability; the risk that schools will push low-achieving students to other schools in order to avoid accountability for their achievement; and the risk of…

Notes the high-school students in the experimental group were given approximately 18 sessions of individual tutoring in which they practiced associations between letter patterns and pronunciations for pronounceable parts of words. Finds these students showed greater improvements on all measures than did students in a control condition when the…

Examines the relation between teacher attributions of student school failure and teacher behavior toward the failing student. Results found that teachers tend to behave in ways that indicate more pity and less anger when they attribute a student's low achievement to her or his low abilities, whereas they express more anger when attributing low…

Describes how the author learned by watching low-achieving students play intricate card games such as "Magic" that they can learn, can remember, and certainly can master information. Realizes that these cards were advanced learning tools, multifaceted texts using color, symbols, images, texts, and metaphor to help create a world of…

This article synthesizes some of the published literature comparing the cognitive functioning of children with reading disabilities (RD) and children with low reading and low intelligence (low achievers). Research indicates that children with reading disabilities outperformed low achievers on measures of lexical knowledge, syntactical knowledge,…

Critiques the College Board's report, "Reaching the Top," which addresses educational underrepresentation of high-achieving minority students, examining its definition of achievement, noting problematic features, and discussing whether the evidence is compelling for poor achievement and for the central importance of academic achievement,…

Compares three groups of academically at-risk college students: students diagnosed with a learning disability (LD), students who identified themselves as having a learning disability (SILD), and low achievers (LA). The scholastic performance of students in the LD group was significantly different from the other two groups, and the self-ratings of…

Maintains that low achieving readers receive poorer quality instruction than their higher achieving peers. Suggests changes based on reading as an active process of constructing meaning from text. Provides examples of ways to foster collaboration and give students choices in reading and writing materials--activities that can result in improved…

Compared social-behavioral competencies of 40 learning-disabled, 40 low-achieving, and 40 typical elementary school students. Teacher ratings using Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment revealed that learning-disabled and low-achieving students were both rated as having significantly lower levels of social competence…

Teacher absenteeism appears highest in elementary schools, schools with lower student achievement, schools composed of economically disadvantaged and minority students, and urban school districts. Survey of Brooklyn high schools found high teacher absenteeism; in addition, attendance patterns were habitual, teachers holding temporary teaching…

The profile and needs of weak learners are listed, and suggestions are offered for teaching that type of student. (LB)

Describes Project ACHIEVE, a comprehensive reform process focused on helping schools deal more effectively with at-risk and underachieving students. Presents the seven components of the project, three-year implementation process, systems-level data, and impact on one elementary school. Describes results from multiple systems, teacher, student, and…