Few decisions by a school district are more controversial than the decision to close a school. School staff, students and their families, and even the local community all bear a substantial burden once the decision is made to close a school. Since 2001, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has closed 44 schools for reasons of poor academic performance or…

Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) data from one rural school system covering four groups of children for a consecutive three year period was used to study the impact of transient students entering the school system. The analysis compared native children (those on roll since the first year) with transient children added to or deleted…

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) assesses the reading achievement of fourth-graders and collects data on their teachers' reading instruction practices and strategies. Presenting data from the United States and the 44 other jurisdictions that participated in PIRLS 2006, this Statistics in Brief describes international…

The 2006-2007 school year was the eighth annual reporting period since disaggregating the performance of students with disabilities on state and district-wide assessments was required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It is the fifth reporting period since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and the…

Due to the increased demands for accountability with the passage of the No Child Left Behind legislation signed in 2002 by President Bush, schools are required to use reading strategies and programs that are supported by scientific research. In Arizona state statute, ARS 15-704, the law outlines the requirements for Arizona school districts to…

In this article, we report kindergarten student and teacher outcomes from a quasi-experimental evaluation of The Superkids, a systematic, phonics-based, comprehensive K-2 reading program. We recruited 23 kindergarten teachers to implement The Superkids program from a diverse, yet predominantly ethnic minority, group of classrooms from across the…

Introduction: Reports the conduct of a national survey in Sweden to establish the desired research priorities for libraries. The research sought to establish what evidence-base is needed for evidence-based practice. Method: The Delphi method was employed to solicit opinions on the kinds of research needed by libraries of all kinds in Sweden.…

This article reports a synthesis of intervention studies conducted between 1994 and 2004 with older students (Grades 6-12) with reading difficulties. Interventions addressing decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension were included if they measured the effects on reading comprehension. Twenty-nine studies were located and synthesized.…

Longitudinal research on reading curricula and skills that predict future reading achievement for African American males in special education is quite limited. Using a national sample over a five-year period, this study highlights reading skills most associated with later reading achievement for African American males in special education. For…

Middle school students who score below proficient on state reading assessments are often placed in remedial reading programs that focus on phonics and decoding skills and do not acknowledge students' literate abilities. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the reading abilities of young adolescent readers. Five assessments measuring…

Each year, between 10 and 20 percent of schoolchildren in the United States are exposed to domestic violence. According to psychologists, such exposure can lead to aggressive behavior, decreased social competence, and diminished academic performance. A majority of parents and school officials believe that children who are troubled, whatever the…

This article describes the development of a process for universal screening and progress monitoring in reading at the elementary level that can be used in a school-wide Response to Intervention (RtI) model. University personnel worked with teachers and administration at an urban elementary school to develop and implement the model in response to a…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a function-based intervention to improve behavior and reading outcomes for Latino English language learners (ELLs). The participants, four Latino ELLs in an elementary school general education setting, were directly observed over a 14-week period. Functional behavioral assessment via teacher interviews and…

First, second, and third graders (N = 102) who had completed from 1 to 3 years of literacy instruction in other schools and had experienced failure entered a private school for struggling readers and received instruction in either of 2 types of systematic phonics programs over a 4-year period. One group received a keyword analogy method (KEY) that…

The main objective of this study was to explore how teachers and classroom factors contribute to students' successful literacy learning. Eight Grade three classes, achieving at higher levels than expected with regard to socio-economic background and language factors, were identified in a multicultural Stockholm district and statistically…