Syntheses of reading research conducted by the National Research Council (1998) and more recently by the Congressionally-Commissioned National Reading Panel (2000) provide ample evidence of the skills, experience, and knowledge children need to become successful readers in an alphabetic writing system. This research makes clear that children must…

A methodology for estimating descriptive statistics, specifically the mean and the variance, from a sample that is not normally drawn is described. The method involves breaking the sample down into subgroups and weighting the descriptive statistics associated with each subgroup by the proportion of the population that the subgroup represents. This…

Reading Recovery (RR), a one-on-one short-term intervention program for first-grade children at risk for literacy failure, targets the lowest 20% of a first-grade classroom. Currently, program guidelines specify that the kindergarten teacher recommend a list of children to be tested for the program. All recommended children are administered an…

Reading Recovery (RR), an early intervention for first graders at risk of literacy failure, was introduced in Maine in school year 1990-91 and has been growing ever since. The Maine Department of Education has been funding the training of RR teachers since the 1994-95 school year. Although there is general agreement that the RR program is…

In the 1997-98 school year, 219 more children were served by the Reading Recovery (RR) program than were served during the previous year in Maine elementary schools. In Maine, 333 Reading Recovery teachers taught 2,171 students in 219 schools that offered Reading Recovery services across 102 local school administrative units. Of all the RR…

This final report documents the activities and outcomes of the 3-year outreach project AHEAD (At Home & At Day Care). Over the course of the three years, AHEAD Outreach conducted eight AHEAD Trainers' Training Institutes that provided AHEAD trainers with up-to-date content in the early intervention field, training techniques, hands-on experiences,…

Written in response to an article critical of Reading Recovery (published in the December/January 1996/1997 issue of "The Reading Teacher"), this paper describes what the 5 authors have learned and are learning about Reading Recovery. An introductory section discusses Reading Recovery, noting that it is an individual tutoring program for…

A study examined the cost effectiveness of Reading Recovery in the Fall River, Massachusetts Public Schools. Costs per pupil and total costs were calculated and compared to the cost of referring students for special education or Title I services had Reading Recovery services not been available. Results indicated a net savings of nearly $1.3…

The Regional Resource Center (RRC) program mission is to strengthen the capacity of state systems of education and early intervention to improve results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities and their families. It is one of the longest and most successful technical assistance projects of the Office of Special Education…

In response to O'Brien et al., who examined predictors of child outcome among at-risk infants as possible eligibility criteria for early intervention programs, this paper notes that most biological risk factors in infants are not adequately predictive of developmental dysfunction. It stresses that when social problems are the cause of…

Presented results of Turkish Early Enrichment Project, a two-year intervention program involving mediational learning and support for low-income mothers and their young children. Found improvements over control group in mothers' literary skills and self efficacy, children's intelligence, school grades, and academic achievement during the…

Academic performance differences among children from varied socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds are unacceptably large. Instead of waiting for U.S. society to solve its inequity problems, educators must prepare all children to achieve their full potential. Educators should think of all children as promising, use early-intervention strategies, and…

Focuses on recent studies that explore the relationships between poverty and child outcomes in depth. Overall, this research supports the conclusion that family income has selective, but sometimes quite substantial, effects on child and adolescent well-being. Implications for interventions during childhood are discussed. (SLD)

Truancy continues to be a pervasive problem in American education. This article describes the extent of the problem, strategies for early intervention, legal sanctions, and school conditions as a source of students' alienation. (Contains 10 references.) (LMI)

The importance of evaluation in early childhood interventions of infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities is discussed. Eight questions guiding the evaluation process are presented, focusing on intervention expectations, purposes of intervention, personalization of intervention, and specification of anticipated outcomes, among others.…