The authors outline a research study that explores the plight of students who direct so much effort into decoding that comprehension suffers. They make the case that difficulties in reading for older readers (intermediate, middle, and high school) could be due to reading fluency difficulties, and they offer strategies for helping these students…

This article examines the factors fostering and inhibiting student achievement in Germany and Spain at the 15-year-old level in the OECD Programme on International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2000. Both countries performed significantly below the OECD average not only in Reading but also in Mathematics and Science on this occasion. Since the two…

Utilizing hierarchical linear models, this study of 144 private schools (72 Catholic and 72 non-Catholic schools) drawn from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 discovered that Catholic school students scored lower in reading than students at non-Catholic private schools. Analysis of internal school characteristics suggested that…

National data were utilized to examine the influence of reading for pleasure on African American high school students' reading achievement. Overall, the study found that reading for pleasure positively impacted African American students' scores on a standardized measure of reading. Implications for teachers and parents were discussed. (Contains 2…

Kim Lattimore thought good teaching was doomed when her elementary school was chosen to test a rigidly structured commercial reading program under the Los Angeles district's aggressive campaign to turn around dismal reading achievement. This article reports on similar concerns of teachers and administrators throughout the Los Angeles Unified…

This article reports how the Voyager Universal Literacy core program, which is sailing successively into the market for reading programs, has been the target of several speculations over its secrets of success. Use of the Voyager Universal Literacy program has since spread to 1,000 districts throughout the country since its introduction into the…

Although recent U.S. legislation has had a profound impact on reading instruction and student achievement, some students continue to fall behind. This provocative text addresses this gap with a new perspective on reading instruction that goes beyond the realms of teacher content knowledge and methodology. The book shows how motivation and interest…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) permits the Secretary of Education to use NAEP achievement level scores, in concert with other data, to confirm state testing results. The U.S. Department of Education has not yet published a guidance document describing how NAEP might be used appropriately. A review of the literature from the Department and…

"ClassWide Peer Tutoring" ("CWPT") is a peer-assisted instructional strategy designed to be integrated with most existing reading curricula. This approach provides students with increased opportunities to practice reading skills by asking questions and receiving immediate feedback from a peer tutor. Pairs of students take turns…

This report offers an examination of the impact of Nebraska Reading First on comprehension across the first three years of implementation in the state. Grade level performance is defined as performance at or above the 40th percentile using grade level standards. Within each grade level section reading comprehension achievement is shown for all…

Legislation passed during the 2001 Iowa legislative session established the Student Achievement and Teacher Quality Program, Iowa Code Section 284.12(1). This legislation requires the Iowa Department of Education (DE) to annually report the statewide progress on the following: student achievement scores in mathematics and reading at the fourth and…

This manuscript examines the practical differences between quantitative and qualitative inquiry by comparing the differences between one article from each paradigm. Quantitative research differs greatly from qualitative inquiry in purpose, assumptions, methodology, and representation. While quantitative research has been the dominant paradigm for…

The perceived crisis in reading achievement may be misplaced--the real crisis may be what is ignored in the curriculum. People are alarmed at the lack of emphasis being placed on teaching content knowledge in many of today's classrooms. They laugh when Jay Leno takes to the street, interviewing teenagers and young adults who do not have the…

A considerable body of previous research has demonstrated that differences between schools and classes have an impact on students' learning and acquisition of skills. It is not yet clear, however, whether the effects persist in the longer term. The present study examines the effect of primary schools and classes on language and mathematics…

Background: The marked degree of heterogeneity in persons with developmental dyslexia has motivated the investigation of possible subtypes. Attempts have proceeded both from theoretical models of reading and the application of unsupervised learning (clustering) methods. Previous cluster analyses of data obtained from persons with reading…