This article discusses walk-throughs as a valuable source of instructional data for teachers and administrators. Data gathering and analysis can be a dynamic and exciting process when walk-throughs are incorporated into a school's improvement plan as an instructional snapshot. At Norris High School in Firth, Nebraska, the principal uses…

"Read Naturally" is designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audio-tapes, and computer software. This program includes three main strategies: repeated reading of English text for oral reading fluency development, teacher modeling of story reading, and systematic monitoring of student progress by teachers.…

A descriptive study examined how school districts in Texas identify students for dyslexia programs. Of the 300 districts surveyed, one-third responded with a long list of assessment instruments with no clear focus towards a definition of dyslexia, nor were notations cited accounting for discrepancies within learning achievement and other…

This document, which is designed to provide Iowa literacy service providers and funding agencies with information about the distribution of adult literacy proficiencies over various regions of Iowa, presents and discusses synthetic estimates of adult literacy proficiencies. First, the procedure that was used to develop synthetic literacy estimates…

The differences between reading and mathematics achievement were studied for 10 high and 10 low socioeconomic status (SES) elementary schools in a midwest urban district. The schools representing the top and bottom quartiles from among 40 schools were classified as high or low SES schools by using a set of highly intercorrelated school level SES…

This study investigates whether second- and third-grade students' reading progress improves when parents are provided with feedback about students' reading progress while they concurrently participate in a parent-child reading program. Over a 15-week period, objective reading progress feedback was provided to parents on a biweekly basis. The 61…

A study examined whether sixth grade students taught formal study skills would obtain significantly higher reading achievement than those not taught these skills. Study skills can be broken down into ten or more skill areas including: study habits, time management, test taking, lecture notetaking, reading comprehension, vocabulary, test anxiety,…

A longitudinal qualitative study examined the variety and scope of literacy experiences in the homes of families from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Original participants were 41 children enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs during the 1992-93 school year and their families from public elementary schools serving Baltimore City neighborhoods…

The 1994 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) Reading Assessment was administered to a national sample of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. National reading proficiency results were reported for students at each grade and within various subgroups of the population. State-level results were reported for individual states or…

Year after year, students, teachers, administrators, politicians, and parents are faced with the dilemma of reading assessment. Sheila Valencia (1990) feels that reading assessment has become a hot topic because the outcome tends to differ from school to school. Evaluations should be authentic and trustworthy. Roger Farr (1992) has noted that the…

This study examined the implementation of an early intervention program, Success for All (SFA), in elementary schools in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A total of 543 at-risk students from four elementary schools participated in the study, with three schools serving as controls and one as the experimental site. Students completed achievement measures,…

The reading teacher needs to determine what each pupil needs to be a successful reader. In collaborative reading, the teacher guides the pupil to read, cooperatively, content that is stimulating yet predictable, consisting of rhymes, refrains, and poems. Most children like to read orally and reading together with others hurdles difficulties in…

This paper discusses literacy, language education, language achievement, and bilingual education policies and practices in Japan. The paper first describes the Japanese writing system (consisting of the "kana" and "kanji" scripts) and notes that students typically study English from grade 7 to the first 2 years of college. The…

The argument between advocates of the whole language approach and the phonics approach threatens to become so polarized and politicized that agreeing on a middle ground seems at times impossible, and the voices of reason and experience are drowned out. The debate erupted anew in California after alarming news stories about reading scores ranked…

A longitudinal study examined the relationship between the emergent literacy knowledge of preschool entrants and their subsequent reading performance, 5 years later. Subjects were selected randomly for the preliminary class lists of 6 separate preschools located in a mid-size midwestern city. Within the first 4 weeks of preschool, 8 informal…