Investigates the prediction of children's (1) academic achievement on the basis of cognitive tasks given prior to kindergarten, and (2) academic attitudes on the basis of teachers' and mothers' ratings of the children's general cognitive abilities and actual achievement through grades 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10. (HOD)

Reading achievement test performance of high and low ability sixth-graders in contrasting reading programs was examined. Lower academic ability pupils benefitted from the explicitly sequenced, behaviorally oriented Matteson program, while higher academic ability students benefitted from the Scott Foresman program, which emphasizes rich language…

This study examined the construct validity of curriculum-based measures of oral reading fluency from basal reading programs. Twelve special education students (grades 2-5) were monitored for oral fluency using 2 reading curricula (their instructional curriculum and the mainstream reading curriculum) throughout the academic year. Performance…

The impact of a parent-school partnership program on elementary school children's reading achievement and attitudes is being evaluated over five years. The program involves the parents in children's reading activities and allows them to influence their children's attitudes toward school achievement. Participating parents agree to support seven…

This paper reports preliminary findings of a 3-year study examining the ability of qualitative and quantitative measures of the home environment variables (HEV's) to contribute to the prediction of third- through fifth-grade students' achievement and growth scores in reading and mathematics. Data were obtained for 198 parent/student pairs from…

In 1977 the Dallas Independent School District devised a 5-year state-mandated improvement plan for increasing student test scores in priority goal areas. This paper describes the planning process as it evolved, the problems faced by large districts, and the 5-year student achievement results. The original plan contained eight priority goal areas,…

In 1982-83 the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) (JCPS) implemented a pilot effective schools project for 10 elementary buildings, based on the inservice program, "Creating Effective Schools," by Brookover and others (1982). This paper provides an overview of the origin of the program in JCPS, how the program was conducted, and…

Four experiments examined the spelling capability of students in grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and college. Results suggested that reading unit size increases with age and reading ability. Younger children, like adults, unitize common words, and unitization of less common words increases as word configurations become more familiar. (RWB)

Examines the ability of 30 normal and 30 learning disabled children across a three-year period to understand a sequence of instructions, communicate the steps in a sequence to others, and rephrase their verbal messages through a referential communication task. (HOD)

Delinquents (n=116) with reading disabilities were given daily multisensory (Orton/Gillingham approach) remedial reading instruction or regular reading instruction. One year after release, the treatment group had made significantly greater growth in reading and had a significantly lower rate of recidivism. (Author/DB)

This study examined the early profiles of 270 kindergarten students screened for learning difficulties in kindergarten with SEARCH (an early identification measure) of which 32 had inadequate reading skills at the end of second grade. The SEARCH instrument tended to underidentify children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and overidentify…

This article integrates the literature on intelligence and achievement outcomes in boys with Klinefelter syndrome (KS). It reports results of a study following 36 boys with KS and 33 sibling controls. Boys with KS demonstrated verbal cognitive deficits and significant underachievement in reading, spelling, and arithmetic, which increased with age.…

Facing mounting evidence that California has fallen behind on many key indicators of educational performance, policymakers and the public share considerable interest in exploring whether California should expand public funding for preschool education. This expanded funding will be most effective if resources can be directed to their most efficient…

Education researchers and policymakers agree that teachers differ in terms of quality and that quality matters for student achievement. Despite prodigious amounts of research, however, debate still persists about the causal relationship between specific teacher credentials and student achievement. In this paper, we use a rich administrative data…

An extended abstract is provided for a major article titled "The Effects of Frequent Curriculum-Based Measurement and Evaluation on Pedagogy, Student Achievement, and Student Awareness of Learning" is described. The article summarizes research on the educational effects of data-based program modification (DBPM). Thirty-nine special…