This study considers the degree to which two quantitative indices--Lexiles and Coh-Metrix--discriminate across levels of difficulty and types of beginning reading texts. The database consisted of 444 texts, representing seven text types that are part of reading/language arts instruction. These text types were distributed across seven levels of…

As educational reform looks at students achieving national standards in reading, much of the educational research that has been conducted has been on students in general education settings. Most research conducted on special education students typically does not focus on students classified with autism, and what research is done on these students…

Achieving 100% literacy is an important goal for many schools. Over the past 5-10 years, government legislation and federally funded programs such as Title I, No Child Left Behind, and Reading Initiatives, such as the Alabama Reading Initiative, have emphasized the importance of effective literacy instruction in order to achieve 100% literacy…

This study explores the social construction of gender perceptions among U.S and U.K. fifth grade students engaged in book club. Using a reader response framework, this study endeavors to discover how meaning is negotiated through print and film literacy, specifically related to gender. By using four Newbery and other award winning pieces of…

This Brief, based on a report of the same title, presents results from a rigorous study of a basic learning communities program operated at Hillsborough Community College. Hillsborough, one of six community colleges participating in the National Center for Postsecondary Research's (NCPR) Learning Communities Demonstration, is a large, urban…

America's public schools have faced challenges in educating students, particularly those identified as at risk. According to the No Child Left Behind Act, nearly 70% of 4th grade students are unable to perform on a basic level on national reading tests. The research problem in this study addressed the significance of guided reading instruction,…

This report, which has been prepared by Abt Associates for the Institute of Education Sciences' National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, takes an important first step in sorting out the implications of relying on state tests for general, student-level measures of reading and math achievement in evaluations of educational…

Risk factors tend to be negatively associated with developmental outcomes such as academic achievement and language skills. Promotive factors, on the other hand, may foster resilience in at-risk children. Some children, such as children with intellectual disabilities, experience relatively more risks than other children do. The purpose of this…

Textbooks are the primary mediator of learning in academic settings. As students progress from elementary school to middle and high school, the need to read textbooks becomes ever more critical. Reading instruction has not, until recently, even begun to take this reality into account (Kamil, Lane, & Nicolls, 2004). Rather, reading instruction has…

The goal of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools (CYFS) is to the conduct of high-quality interdisciplinary research to promote the intellectual, behavioral and social-emotional development and functioning of individuals across educational, familial and community contexts. The Center creates the context for…

The WWC practice guide "Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade" developed by a panel of experts, presents a set of evidence-based practices that teachers and other educators can use to successfully teach reading comprehension to young readers. The guide, developed by a panel of experts, presents a set of…

The present study examined how proofreading and reading-for-comprehension instructions influence eye movements during reading. Thirty-seven participants silently read sentences containing compound words as target words while their eye movements were being recorded. We manipulated word length and frequency to examine how task instructions influence…

The current article investigates the work of 20 Reading First coaches to determine how coaches distribute their time and the rationale they give for their work. Teachers' responses to coaches and the relationships between what coaches do and student achievement are also analyzed. There was great variability among coaches in how they allocated…

This qualitative study surveyed university professors of literacy education to explore "how" and "if" they modeled differentiated instruction in their own college classrooms. A survey in questionnaire format on "how" and "if" University Reading Professors differentiate instruction was sent to a purposeful…

This two-part study examines the emerging understanding of the reading process among preservice teachers (PTs), enrolled in a teacher preparation course on diagnostic reading. The study focuses on the use of reading assessment tools to understand the process of reading, while using reading inventories for diagnostic as well as pedagogical…