The purposes of this study were to custom make a reading readiness program for a group of kindergarten children and to compare their progress with that of a second group. A pretest was administered to all of the children and then each child was grouped according to his or her needs. Two classes were involved in the study, one labeled control and…

The question of whether or not the level of reading competency has declined over the years, is addressed in this report. The study attempts to determine whether there is sufficient data to answer the question and to decide if the available factual information allows an answer to the question posed. Chapter one, describing the first phase of the…

Success-oriented reading program includes both reading diagnosis which emphasizes students' individual strengths and instructional strategies which guide students toward success and minimize situations leading to failure. Techniques which are successful in overcoming learning detractors are: concentration for distractibility, short term goals for…

This report contains an evaluation of the reading improvement program in the primary grades in Cleveland, Ohio, which attempts to provide specialized reading instruction and support for disadvantaged pupils at a time deemed critical in their school experience. The project utilizes the services of a reading consultant, master teachers, and…

Reading scores earned by 286 fifth-grade pupils taking the California Test of Basic Skills were used in a study examining the relationship between reading achievement and birth order and related family factors. Vocabulary scores were significantly related to birth order, family size, and socioeconomic status. Comprehension scores were…

From November 1972 through June 1973 an experiment was conducted with 576 students (in grades two, four, and six) to determine if there were significant differences in reading performance and attitude toward reading between students in programs which included a daily period of sustained, silent reading (SSR) and those in programs which did not.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of having trained paraprofessionals work with classroom teachers to improve the reading achievement of socioeconomically disadvantaged first grade children. The multiple teaching approach used in this study both organized the learning experience for children so that maximum instructional use…

This Career Opportunities Program (COP) Bulletin focuses on the involvement of COP participants in the teaching of reading and children's right to read. The contents include detailed descriptions of special reading programs in Jacksonville (Florida) and Atlanta (Georgia). Also presented are shorter descriptions of the involvement of COP…

This paper describes some findings from language development research and from studies in which comprehension of certain sentence structures in written materials was examined. The paper is divided into four sections. "Language Development Studies" discusses research that looked at the sentence structures of produced language of groups of children,…

The question of whether reading methods interact differentially with student sequencing abilities was investigated. One hundred and thirty-one children from three schools in Palo Alto, California, were given reading instruction using a linguistic approach (Palo Alto Reading Program), and 115 children from three Palo Alto schools used a whole-word…

The effects of a series of science lessons on reading readiness were investigated. Kindergarten children from three schools in central-city Milwaukee were the subjects. Twenty children from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Laboratory School were used to try out the procedures and materials used in the prepared science lessons. Twenty children…

The achievement of four groups of children as measured by the Stanford Achievement Test was compared at the end of the first, second, and third year of school. The four programs used were the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.), Words in Color (WIC), Phonetic Keys, and teacher-designed analytic programs. At the end of the first year there appeared…

Current research dealing with the importance of reading, various beginning reading programs, and reading and the disadvantaged child was surveyed. This was followed by an explanation of the DISTAR Reading Program, which was designed to teach reading to disadvantaged children. The remainder of the report described a study which was conducted to…

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect on first-grade reading achievement of completing a program designed to teach the names of the letters of the alphabet before beginning formal reading instruction. Information was sought on the differential effect of this program on either boys or girls of different levels of…

This study investigated whether a random sample of 50 elementary teachers, 10 in each of grades 2 through 6, in Topeka, Kansas, discriminated against elementary school boys--and in favor of girls--in rating of pupil reading achievement and assignment to reading groups. Teachers rated each pupil in their class on level of general reading…