The U.S. Senate conducted a hearing consisting of two panels: the first panel discussed overcoming reading difficulties with a primary focus on children and the second panel focused on reading and literacy outreach activities that are ongoing in the U.S. After opening statements of the Hon. James M. Jeffords, the Hon. Edward M. Kennedy, and the…

This booklet presents the Reading Framework for the 1992, 1994, 1998, and 2000 National Assessments of Educational Progress (NAEP), adopted by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). The Framework contains the rationale for the aspects of reading assessed and criteria for development of the assessment. Developed through a national…

This paper states that today's newspaper and educational journal articles complain that only half the school population can read on grade level. Yet standardized tests are written to spread pupils out from the first to the 99th percentile, or from three or more standard deviations above to three or more standard deviations below the mean.…

This report discusses current research findings on the effects of peers and social interaction on academic achievement, then analyzes current national data, comparing results to the existing academic literature. Data from the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) database on reading were used to test the influences of peer…

Whether computer-assisted instruction (CAI) can improve reading achievement of students has been a crucial question addressed by studies in the past. This meta-analysis reviewed 17 research studies based on K-12 students and revealed that CAI does have a positive effect on reading achievement. Although the effects of CAI in the 17 studies were not…

This paper explores what a reading teacher might do to guide students to achieve and be successful in reading. The paper first points out that there are selected programs of reading instruction which are individualized for optimal student success, and then discusses some of these programs, such as: individualized reading; the experience chart;…

This booklet outlines the model content standards in reading and writing for students in the state of Colorado. The booklet cites the following six standards for public school elementary and secondary students: (1) students read and understand a variety of materials; (2) students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences; (3)…

The Reading Excellence program seeks to provide a cadre of trained volunteers to deliver tutorial assistance in reading to at-risk students during non-instructional times that will result in significant improvement in student performance on reading and language arts as measured by their age-appropriate standardized tests. This paper describes the…

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…

Developed for the America Reads initiative, this paper presents the LEARNS (Linking Education and America Reads through National Service) Literacy Assessment Profile (LLAP), a student assessment system that is designed to improve providers' ability to deliver high quality literacy programs to students, assess students' literacy understanding, set…

This action research project investigated various reading strategies to increase reading comprehension and vocabulary skills. The targeted population consisted of students from three elementary schools and one junior high school, located in lower to middle socioeconomic neighborhoods. Two elementary schools and the junior high school are located…

The purpose of the project was to develop an intensive reading remediation program to increase the reading levels of a targeted group of 20 fourth and fifth grade students by two or more grade levels. An afterschool training program was also developed to improve a targeted group of teachers' skills in teaching reading and to increase their basic…

Mississippi elementary schools using the Success for All reading program have once again made outstanding gains on the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT) reading scale. Students in grades 2-5 in Success for All schools gained 7.8 percentage points in students scoring at proficient or advanced from 2002 to 2004. Mississippi students as a whole…

Success for All is the most extensively researched of all comprehensive reform models for Title I elementary and middle schools. It incorporates scientifically based principles of reading, cooperative learning, professional development, tutoring, and family support. Missouri schools implementing the Success for All reading program once again made…

The North Carolina High School Comprehensive Test (HSCT)--Reading and Mathematics is currently being utilized to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind legislation of 2001. No Child Left Behind requires that, by the 2005-06 school year, each state must measure every child's progress in reading and math in each of grades 3 through 8 and at…