The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and the National Association of State Title I Directors (NASTID) drafted this paper to spark local discussions on the coordinated uses of funds to implement technology in the classroom. State and local Title I and Title IID directors can work together to ensure that these ideas are…

We compared 56 eighth-grade students who, 28 months previously, had received instruction in strategies for planning and revising their writing, with 21 students of similar academic ability from the same school who had not experienced the intervention. Both groups wrote an expository essay whilst logging their writing activities and completed…

Presented at the national conference for AERA (American Educational Research Association) . This study examined whether there are distinct differences in the demographic characteristics, HSGPA, first-year college performance, and second-year college retention rates among students who have discrepant CR-W performance.

The authors developed a grounded theory about how a school serving relatively advantaged children produces high reading and writing achievement compared with schools serving similar populations of students. The school's faculty is reading and writing focused, and students experience many books as they receive explicit, demanding instruction (i.e.,…

According to Bandura's social cognitive theory, self-efficacy and self-regulation are key processes that affect students' learning and achievement. This article discusses students' reading and writing performances using Zimmerman's four-phase social cognitive model of the development of self-regulatory competence. Modeling is an effective means of…

In this study, we assessed small and large group discussions and repeated writing assignments with the intent to objectively measure the values of these learning pedagogies. We crafted a model where students researched a question, formulated a written answer, discussed it with their peers, and revised their answers. Then, we did it with repetition…

The National Writing Project's (NWP's) latest brochure makes a case for devoting more attention to writing, and demonstrates through recent research results that the writing project has had a positive impact on teachers and students across the country. This publication draws on a number of studies: a 2005 national public opinion survey showing…

This study, which was primarily experimental in nature, sought to determine whether cooperative argumentative writing, in contrast to competitive individual writing, has positive effects on student performance and attitudes. A brief qualitative analysis using student questionnaires, journals, and interviews (n=73) was conducted to assess students'…

This first annual report describes student performance in reading and writing from the spring 1997 administration of the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP). In this first administration of CSAP, all fourth grade students in Colorado were assessed. The report provides policymakers, educators, parents, and the community with a general…

Many colleges and universities are revamping their freshman writing courses in response to increasing numbers of complaints from professors who see students who cannot write and from students bored or frustrated in writing courses. (SLD)

The full-school-year immersion of six deaf kindergarten students in literacy-rich activities focusing on daily reading and writing in authentic communication tasks resulted in increased levels of written language production. (12 references) (Author/CB)

Suggests that the implications of the conclusions of another article in this issue are critical to writing instruction, in that they relate to the nature of craft in writing and its relationship to current views of language development and learning. Offers specific instructional processes to address students' differing capabilities in processing…

Comments on development of literacy "benchmarks" by the Commonwealth Government. Suggests that the benchmarks (1) will prove a highly productive discursive (and thus financial) context for some researchers, assessment organizations, and professional development teams; and (2) are a product of the melodrama of crisis, having no foundation…

Contains the guide used by scorers of eighth grade informative writing in the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), samples of student responses at each of the six levels of performance, and a discussion of the scoring method. (Author/SLD)

This article reviews research examining technical features of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) in written expression. Twenty-eight technical reports and published articles are included in this review. Studies examining the development and technical adequacy of measures of written expression are summarized, beginning with research conducted at…