There are a plethora of ways which may be used to ascertain learner achievement in reading. This paper discusses such procedures. Comprehensive teacher observation of reading, using quality criteria, can be an excellent approach to assess reading progress. Selected criteria are discussed. Six categories of word recognition skills are important.…

This report describes a program for advancing reading skills in order to improve reading scores and individual achievement. The targeted population consisted of elementary students in a middle class community located in a Midwestern state. Standardized test scores and local assessment scores revealed that many elementary students were lacking the…

Central in the discussion of school improvement is the belief, supported by research, that almost all students can learn to read and that much reading failure is preventable. For almost all students to become literate, even those who are challenging to teach, educators must apply their best understanding of effective professional development, such…

Seven years of changes in a Practicum in Reading course has altered the responsibilities and accountabilities for preservice teachers tutoring in a public school. Changes, formative and summative assessment results for tutored children and implications for the program's future are discussed. A study examined whether the college literacy practicum…

The information contained in this publication, a brief introduction to literacy, is designed to help potential literacy workers gain a basic understanding of literacy issues. The publication notes that current literacy efforts in the United States, especially the new America Reads initiative, are focused on helping young children up to the third…

Noting the field of literacy education is vast and complicated, this book identifies the most significant issues and trends facing literacy educators today and to locate sources that explain principal viewpoints on these issues. Each chapter is made up of four parts: a brief introduction to the topic, the articles themselves, an annotated…

The second year evaluation of Georgia's Reading First Program primarily addresses the question of the program's effect on students' reading achievement. How schools implemented Reading First is also discussed. The results from the evaluation are, for the most part, positive and support the continuation of the program. The achievement data…

The Accelerated Reader (AR) program enables free-standing computer-assisted assessment of comprehension of "real books." It is a curriculum-based assessment that summarizes and analyzes results to enable teachers to monitor both the quantity and quality of reading practice engaged in by the student. It is voluntarily self administered by…

This report documents the evaluation of selected Portland, Oregon, Public Schools elementary and middle school literacy instructional programs and professional development models in 2000-2001. The literacy evolution examined the use of four reading intervention programs and professional development models as well as district adoptions of publisher…

This report describes an action research project improving student academic reading achievement. The targeted population consisted of fifth grade students in a growing suburb of a major midwestern metropolitan area. The evidence for existence of the problem included student surveys, assessments, teacher observations and checklists. Analysis of…

This focused newsletter features articles about reading, reading research, and teaching reading. The newsletter's lead article, "The Challenge of Improving Reading," enumerates the problems that schools and families can encounter when trying to raise student performance in reading. Another article in the newsletter, "The Longest…

A study examined whether students' reading ability affected their level of aesthetic reading response when reading level-appropriate literature. During the study, 28 fifth graders read books and wrote responses to what they read. Responses were scored on a rubric valuing aesthetic responses that demonstrated personal experiences. Students' reading…

This paper reviews literature in the past 60 years about the relationship between music experience and language reading. Results of the literature review fall into three categories: the first group of studies (group I) indicates that music experience benefits language reading due to six transfers of learning--prediction skill, whole-to-part…

A study examined children's reading difficulties at the early grade levels and explored how federal and state governments are responding to this critical education problem. Sections of the study address: background issues in reading achievement; federal response to improve poor reading achievement; state issues in early reading achievement;…

Following the style of the 1958 original, this third edition of the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability is both a standardized attainment test and a diagnostic test and thus can be used to assess reading progress objectively as well as to obtain structured diagnostic observations of an individual's reading behavior. This Reader contains narratives…