This general achievement trends profile includes information that the Center on Education Policy (CEP) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) obtained from states from fall 2008 through April 2009. Included herein are: (1) Bullet points summarizing key findings about achievement trends in that state at three performance…

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, states have been required to set minimum proficiency standards that virtually all students must meet by 2014. Sanctions of increasing severity are to be applied to schools that fail to meet interim targets, known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The authors examine the effect of this legislation using…

A study compared two groups of children in an urban elementary school who were unready for second grade at the conclusion of first grade. A group of 15 students was retained in first grade while another group of 45 students was promoted to second grade. The California Achievement Test was used to measure the reading ability of both groups at the…

Proposing two major shifts in how to involve low readers more effectively in textbook learning, this book suggests that students, even those with low reading skills, can learn to use mainstream textbooks, and that textbooks can be designed to make them more usable for all students. The book presents a series of instructional techniques that…

Computer Mediated Conferencing (CMC) courses are attracting students with weak computer communication skills. This document describes a study which examines the outcomes for such students when they enrolled in a CMC course that required high levels of peer interaction. It was anticipated that students with weaker skills would miss important…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a listening program using the reciprocal teaching procedure and the direct instruction model. Subjects, 95 9- to 11-year-old students from 6 special schools for children with learning disabilities, were chosen based on their very low scores on a decoding test, low scores on a reading comprehension test,…

A study was conducted to identify poor readers and to characterize weaknesses in their knowledge and use of story structure in comprehension and recall. Subjects were 80 year-3 children in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 20 good readers and 60 poor readers. The poor readers were then divided into relatively homogeneous subgroups, using measures…

This report evaluates the effectiveness of a reading program known as "The Reading Renaissance/Accelerated Reader Program" as implemented at Gardner Middle School in San Manuel, Arizona, during the period of April 1997 to April 1998. Before the program was implemented, students were achieving at a low level in reading. Students in the…

Cooperative learning has received a substantial amount of empirical support to indicate it is a viable classroom reward structure. It has been recommended that school psychologists might add this strategy to their repertoire of interventions to be used in consulting with teachers, particularly integrating handicapped students. A structured…

A study investigated the effect of drama-based instruction on the learning of social skills by student labeled as "low ability" in a 10th-grade required English class in a rural high school. Two separate classes of "low ability" 10th-grade English students in Janesville, Wisconsin, were presented with social skills training…

A study explored the construct of phonological awareness by examining the effects of different instructional treatments on the development of generalized phonological skills, reading, and spelling. The effect of phonological instruction with kindergarten children who might be expected to have more than average difficulty learning to read in first…

The first Standard Grade courses have been in place in Scotland for almost ten years. This document reports on a study with the following goals: (1) to describe the actual mathematical competencies of pupils gaining grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 in Standard Grade Mathematics; (2) to describe the competencies shown in school work by pupils failing to…

The extent of grade retention in Massachusetts is assessed in this report, which examines current research on grade retention and suggests alternative practices for dealing with low achieving students. Data were derived from the Chapter 188 Individual School Report for 1987-88, an annual survey of Massachusetts conducted by the Department of…

An investigation was made into causes for decreasing performance on the Common Entrance Examination, a test for admission into secondary schools, by candidates in Borno State, Nigeria. It had been noted that performance had begun to worsen after the introduction of universal primary education in 1976. To gather data addressing the issue, probable…

The author teaches a course in basic Latin to pupils without great ability. She claims three objectives: development of word sense; stimulation for the imagination, and enjoyment of the lessons, learning and use of the mind. (CHK)