A study investigated the extent to which positive moral values are included in reading and social studies textbooks. Random samples of social studies textbooks (published by Harcourt Brace, D. C. Heath, Scott Foresman, Silver Burdett and Ginn, and McGraw-Hill) and reading textbooks (published by MacMillan/McGraw-Hill, Harcourt Brace, and Houghton…

Certain events between the late sixties and the eighties were major influences in empowering Australian reading teachers to break the basal habit. During the late sixties a growing number of elementary classroom teachers and principals were showing an interest in classroom practices that focused on children's individual progression. During the…

To explore the issue of educational content in basal readers, a study analyzed 34 basal reading textbooks, representing eight of the most commonly used series in American elementary education. Educational content was defined and categorized along three dimensions: subject matter, function, and ethos. The subject matter component covered theories,…

Fry's Readability Graph was used to determine the readability levels of the 1981 Scott, Foresman and Co. basal textbook series for grades one through six. The readability levels were then compared to those established for the 1978 edition. In the 1981 edition, all stories were handscored. Poems, skill lessons, and plays were not examined in order…

The process of evaluating and selecting basal readers has long been a primary concern for educators. Educators directly involved with textbook adoptions have expressed several concerns, including: time pressures on evaluators; lack of training for evaluators; concerns related to publishers; and correlations with state or district curriculum.…

A study compared the teaching methods of basal readers to writing/reading integration as they effect reading comprehension. Forty fourth-grade students from an urban area of New England completed the Reading Comprehension Subtest of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) for grade 3 as a pretest. A control group of 20 students were…

As part of an effort to discover what was being done with comprehension instruction in classrooms, basal reader manuals, and reading methodology textbooks, an analysis was made of the content of eight reading methods textbooks that had copyright dates at least as recent as 1983 and that were the most frequently used texts. All the pages in the…

A study was conducted to determine whether the interests of seventh grade students were reflected in the content of the basal stories used in the classroom. Subjects were 48 seventh graders enrolled in developmental reading in an upper middle-class socioeconomic region of New Jersey. On a questionnaire, students were asked to select from a list of…

This article discusses three major reasons why children who can decode the stories in their basal readers may still have problems reading content area textbooks. The reasons include: (1) lack of prerequisite knowledge (including content, discourse, and strategic knowledge); (2) poorly written textbooks; and (3) negative classroom experiences in…

The purposes of this study were to examine the reliability and validity of a basal reading series mastery test, and to explore the appropriateness and usefulness of two strategies for investigating the reliability and validity of criterion-referenced tests. Subjects were 47 sixth graders, who were tested on the SRA Reading Achievement Test, the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a basal reading series mastery test. Subjects were 47 fifth graders, who were tested on the SRA Reading Achievement Test, the Ginn 720 End-of-level 11 Mastery Test (MT), and the Word Reading Test. A subgroup of 22 children was tested a second time on the MT. Traditional…

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a basal reading series mastery test. Subjects were 25 fourth graders, who were tested once on the SRA Reading Achievement Test, twice on the Scott-Foresman End-of-Book 9 Criterion-referenced Test (CRT), and once on the Word Reading Test. Traditional psychometric correlational…

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a basal reading series mastery test. Subjects were 21 fourth graders, who were tested once on the SRA Reading Achievement Test, twice on the Holt Basic Reading Series Management Program Level 13 Test (MPLT), and once on the Word Reading Test. Traditional psychometric…

A questionnaire was devised and mailed to 84 township school districts in New Jersey to determine how often each adopted new basal reading series, the extent of teacher involvement in the selection process, and whether a detailed questionnaire was used as a basis for evaluation of different basals. A Likert scale was used to grade responses.…

A study (conducted in suburban central New Jersey using 218 second graders' California Achievement Test (CAT) scores from 1986-1988 compared the effectiveness of two well-known reading programs. Results indicated that although there was no statistically significant difference in the scores, the mean difference suggested that children who were…