Annually, ACT provides a snapshot of the college and career readiness of ACT-tested high school graduates. This report is offered as a service to inform policymakers and practitioners about selected indicators of effectiveness and how that translates into readiness. It is designed to stimulate discussion, inquiry, and action. This report is…

Annually, ACT provides a snapshot of the college and career readiness of ACT-tested high school graduates. This report is offered as a service to inform policymakers and practitioners about selected indicators of effectiveness and how that translates into readiness. It is designed to stimulate discussion, inquiry, and action. This report is…

Annually, ACT provides a snapshot of the college and career readiness of ACT-tested high school graduates. This report is offered as a service to inform policymakers and practitioners about selected indicators of effectiveness and how that translates into readiness. It is designed to stimulate discussion, inquiry, and action. This report is…

Annually, ACT provides a snapshot of the college and career readiness of ACT-tested high school graduates. This report is offered as a service to inform policymakers and practitioners about selected indicators of effectiveness and how that translates into readiness. It is designed to stimulate discussion, inquiry, and action. This report is…

Describes a follow up report and evaluation of the "Writing to Read" program in the Tulsa Public Schools. Standardized test results, supported by first-hand observations, show that student scores increased over the year of the study. (MD)

This report, which is anchored in ACT data, focuses on steps for improving the reading skills of students attending this nation's high schools. The conclusions reported are based both on what ACT test scores inform about the reading skills of ACT-tested high school students who graduated in 2005 and trends derived from students who have taken the…

Outlines a successful reading program developed in Wakulla County, Florida, schools where the adult illiteracy rate was seriously high. The success of this program emphasizes three points: begin with detailed needs assessment, establish clear program goals, and provide continuous evaluation.(MD)

The Maryland edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) 2009 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the third annual look at state policies impacting the teaching profession. It is hoped that this report will help focus attention on areas where state policymakers can make changes that will have a positive impact on teacher…

Governors and other state policymakers are turning to volunteer reading tutoring programs to improve children's reading ability. The Committee for Economic Development, a nonpartisan organization of business leaders and educators, reports a steady rise in the number of businesses that are volunteering personnel to participate in business-school…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "A Plan for Success": Alliance Joins Nine National Organizations Representing Communities of Color in Historic Campaign for…

This paper contends that the most difficult task facing state policymakers is to understand that the strong feelings on both sides of the reading debate may not be truly reflective of the choices before them--it is not a choice between teaching reading through phonics or whole language. The paper states that a good whole language program must…

Identifies the elements of a successful districtwide reading-improvement program: (1) a strong central-office advocate; (2) an emphasis on phonemic awareness; (3) an early intervention program; (4) a concentration on language arts in the primary grades; (5) a basal-language-arts program; (6) a variety of assessment strategies; (7) a strong…

School boards must take the responsibility for school change, beginning with an attack on illiteracy. Reasonable standards for success in teaching reading, writing, and math must be established. (MLF)

The San Francisco Renaissance is a job training program for unemployed innercity youths. The illiteracy rates of youths applying to the program are high so a literacy class was developed to raise the students' reading and math skills to the eighth- and ninth-grade levels required by the technical job market for which they are being trained. (MD)

This lucidly written book provides a concise conceptual map to guide preservice and inservice teachers through the often-confusing terrain of reading instruction. Distinguished researcher and former classroom teacher Mark Sadoski describes the essential concepts and methods of the field and summarizes key research findings and historical…