A study examined the effects of scheduling a language arts block at West Vigo Middle School (Indiana) in the 1993-94 school year in an attempt to show that ISTEP (Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress) language arts and reading NCE (Normal Curve Equivalent) scores for eighth graders would increase. ISTEP scores for 1993 (before the…

Whichever of the numerous ways of grouping pupils for instruction the teacher uses, pupils should benefit as much as possible from reading instruction. Team teaching stresses large, small, and individual methods of grouping for instructional purposes. No more than 20 pupils should be taught at a single time in large group instruction. Flexibility…

Teaching all children to read requires that every child receive excellent reading instruction, and that children who are struggling with reading receive additional instruction from professionals specifically prepared to teach them. The range of student achievement found in classrooms, with the inclusion of children who have various physical,…

Increasing concerns have been expressed about the differences between the achievements of boys and girls, especially in terms of literacy. This account of an action research project by a teacher-librarian explores the reading habits of a sample of boys and girls in S1 and S2 in a Scottish secondary school, and describes how the findings led to the…

This report presents the results of the third administration of the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP). These results are part of a long-term effort to gather data on the educational progress of Delaware students and to use the data to inform decisions about instruction. Reading, writing, and mathematics results are summarized in this report;…

This document contains materials directly related to the actual reading test of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), including the reading rubric, released passages, selected-response questions with answer keys, performance tasks, and scored samples of students' responses to the tasks. All of these items may be duplicated to…

The middle school reading/literature instructor needs to determine where each student is in reading achievement and then assist each to achieve as optimally as possible. What might the teacher do to assist students to become good middle school readers? A major problem of middle schoolers is to be able to recognize a certain percent of words…

There are a plethora of ways which may be used to ascertain learner achievement in reading. This paper discusses such procedures. Comprehensive teacher observation of reading, using quality criteria, can be an excellent approach to assess reading progress. Selected criteria are discussed. Six categories of word recognition skills are important.…

This report describes a program for advancing reading skills in order to improve reading scores and individual achievement. The targeted population consisted of elementary students in a middle class community located in a Midwestern state. Standardized test scores and local assessment scores revealed that many elementary students were lacking the…

Central in the discussion of school improvement is the belief, supported by research, that almost all students can learn to read and that much reading failure is preventable. For almost all students to become literate, even those who are challenging to teach, educators must apply their best understanding of effective professional development, such…

Seven years of changes in a Practicum in Reading course has altered the responsibilities and accountabilities for preservice teachers tutoring in a public school. Changes, formative and summative assessment results for tutored children and implications for the program's future are discussed. A study examined whether the college literacy practicum…

The information contained in this publication, a brief introduction to literacy, is designed to help potential literacy workers gain a basic understanding of literacy issues. The publication notes that current literacy efforts in the United States, especially the new America Reads initiative, are focused on helping young children up to the third…

Noting the field of literacy education is vast and complicated, this book identifies the most significant issues and trends facing literacy educators today and to locate sources that explain principal viewpoints on these issues. Each chapter is made up of four parts: a brief introduction to the topic, the articles themselves, an annotated…

The second year evaluation of Georgia's Reading First Program primarily addresses the question of the program's effect on students' reading achievement. How schools implemented Reading First is also discussed. The results from the evaluation are, for the most part, positive and support the continuation of the program. The achievement data…

The Accelerated Reader (AR) program enables free-standing computer-assisted assessment of comprehension of "real books." It is a curriculum-based assessment that summarizes and analyzes results to enable teachers to monitor both the quantity and quality of reading practice engaged in by the student. It is voluntarily self administered by…