There is abundant evidence that schools with strong reading programs have successful students. But building strong reading skills is a complex task, particularly by the time students reach the middle grades. A survey was conducted that involved all Indiana middle grades schools in May 2009. Two types of data analysis were utilized in preparing the…

The Improving Literacy through School Libraries (LSL) program was established under Title I, Part B, Subpart 4 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The purpose of the program is to improve the literacy skills and academic achievement of students by providing them with increased…

This publication contains Arizona public schools' academic standards for grade 4. The contents of this document include the following: (1) The Arts Standard 2006--Grade 4; (2) Comprehensive Health Education/Physical Activity Standards 1997--Essentials (Grades 4-8); (3) Foreign and Native Language Standards 1997--Essentials (Grades 4-8); (4)…

From helping to achieve economic well-being to constructing a sense of self, literacy plays a central role in how people interact with each other and with the world around them (Phelps, 2005). The importance of being literate has only increased over the decades and stands to become even more important in the future. Fifty years ago, an abundance…

The two studies presented in this report were designed to test the effectiveness of a new diagnostic-based reading intervention for classroom teachers, called the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI). This TRI Tier 2 intervention stressed diagnostic teaching as the key to helping struggling readers make rapid progress in reading in the regular…

"Charter Schools in Eight States" uses longitudinal data from eight states to evaluate the effects of charter schools on achievement, attainment, integration, and competition. The findings are mixed. "Achievement": The study examines seven jurisdictions and finds insignificant effects on reading and math performance in five,…

A study examined whether a correlation exists between the number of years of experience and professional development that a teacher has and the gain in the classroom's average of total reading scores. Teachers participating in the study were the instructors of the three fourth-grade units of a lower-to-middle class socioeconomic elementary school…

A study ascertained the degree of relationships between scores on each of various reading subskills and overall reading success. Reading subskills were measured by locally developed reading skills tests. Overall reading success was measured by the reading subtest of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS). In each of three southern Indiana school…

A study investigated whether middle-school students who identify recreational reading as a hobby obtain significantly higher reading achievement scores than those middle-school students who have not identified recreational reading as a hobby. Subjects, 55 students in grades 4, 5, and 6 at the Earle Elementary Public School located in a…

A study evaluated reaching achievement for three groups of first-grade students: (1) those receiving phonics instruction utilizing the "Open Court" phonics materials integrated with the District's language arts curriculum; (2) those receiving phonics instruction in the context of guided and shared reading activities ("Phonics in…

These two booklets contain a variety of information about the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), which assessed for the first time in April 1997 all fourth-grade classrooms in the content areas of reading and writing. The first booklet, the Demonstration Booklet, discusses the history and purpose of the assessment; assessment design;…

Bringing structure to the reading assessment process, this paper presents a draft proposal of an assessment structure which practitioners can follow, one which can be applied systematically within the Instructional Support Team process across Pennsylvania. After some background information, the paper briefly discusses features of effective reading…

Poor readers and reading age level controls performed a primed picture naming task and a lexical decision task. Additionally, vocabulary performance was assessed for both groups. Subjects were 42 Dutch children--mean age for the poor readers was 145 months and for controls was 117 months. In the picture naming task there were three priming…

A study aimed to examine how reading assessment information is understood and used by two powerful groups: federal legislators and members of the news media. Attempts were made to contact federal legislators on educational subcommittees to discuss how they used reading assessment information to make legislative policy decisions and to vote on…

Noting that existing research reveals considerable diversity among researchers' philosophical stances toward literature-based reading instruction versus traditional basal reading instruction, a study determined what effects literature-based instruction had on the reading achievement of fourth graders. Subjects, fourth-grade students of the John P.…