In this article, school characteristics linked with educational effectiveness in 14 sub-Saharan African countries are identified. Effectiveness has been defined in terms of students' literacy achievement at the end of Grade 6, after taking their social and academic backgrounds into account. The data used are from the second major educational…

One of the ultimate goals of policy makers is to enable citizens to take advantage of a globalised world economy. This is leading them to focus on the improvement of education policies, ensuring the quality of service provision, a more equitable distribution of learning opportunities and stronger incentives for greater efficiency in schooling.…

Reading achievement in the United States has stagnated. In 2009, only 33 percent of Fourth Graders were proficient or above in reading--a mere two percentage points higher than in 1998. At the same time, double-digit achievement gaps between African American and Latino/Hispanic students and their white counterparts have changed little in nearly…

The 4Rs Program (Reading, Writing, Respect and Resolution) is a "dual focus" whole school universal intervention designed to promote literacy development and social-emotional learning, that is currently being rigorously evaluated using a school-randomized trial of 18 elementary schools (9 intervention, 9 control) in New York City. The…

Alaska showed improvement in reading and math in grade 8 at the proficient level for almost all racial/ethnic subgroups, low income students, and boys and girls (subgroup trends were not available at the basic or advanced levels). Most student subgroups had upward trends in percentages proficient, with a few exceptions. Gains in math tended to be…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Oklahoma for 2010. Oklahoma made progress in narrowing achievement gaps for most major subgroups on the End-of-Instruction (EOI) test in Algebra I. Trends in achievement gaps could not be determined for other grades in math, or for any grades in reading, because the state…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Utah for 2010. Utah implemented new standards and cut scores in math so trend data that include 2009 are not available. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Utah showed across-the-board gains in reading at the basic,…

A quasi-experimental study designed to provide evidence of the effectiveness of the "Jamestown Reading Navigator" ("JRN") program for students in grades 9-10 was conducted in the Miami Dade Public School District (MDCSD). "Jamestown Reading Navigator" is a reading intervention program developed by McGraw-Hill…

The aim of the article is to analyse the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the skills of reading and text-understanding, focusing on the comparative analysis of experiences of meaning in native language, Romanian and English in the case of Hungarian pupils. We attempted to present the qualitative indexes and factors of the process of reading…

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys, which take place every three years, have been designed to collect information about 15-year-old students in participating countries. PISA examines how well students are prepared to meet the challenges of the future,…

This paper presents the annual report of the Consolidated Grant Title V, Part A: Innovative Programs for the fiscal year 2008-2009. This report contains three sections. Section I, "Progress Report by Program", contains the following programs: (1) Local Education Reform Plan To Improve Reading, Math, and Language Arts; (2) Reading and Math Reform…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 created the Reading First program to help ensure that all students could read at or above grade level by the end of grade 3. The program promotes practices recommended by the National Reading Panel for early reading instruction, highlighting essential components of reading instruction. As required by the…

In the United States, public housing developments are predominantly located in neighborhoods with low median incomes, high rates of poverty and disproportionately high concentrations of minorities. While research consistently shows that public housing developments are located in economically and socially disadvantaged neighborhoods, we know little…

This article systematically reviews research on the achievement outcomes of three types of classroom approaches to improving the reading achievement of students in grades 2-5: Reading curricula, computer-assisted instruction (CAI), and instructional process programs. Study inclusion criteria included use of randomized or matched control groups,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of participation in Read 180, a teacher-mediated, computer-mediated reading instruction program, on the reading proficiency of 4th and 5th grade English Language Learners. The students who participated in the Read 180 program scored below the 25th percentile on the Florida Comprehensive…