Signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaces No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. NCLB and its Reading First mandate brought punitive accountability models and scripted core curricula into schools. Based on the language of…

Vocabulary instruction is a key component of reading comprehension but is often not addressed sufficiently in classrooms. The authors worked with a team of fifth-grade teachers in professional development targeted to learning instructional strategies for developing students' vocabularies. In this article, the authors share two strategies that the…

This article presents four practical principles that lead to enhanced word-meaning instruction in the elementary grades. The authors, a collaborative team of researchers and classroom teachers, identified and developed these principles and related instructional activities during a three-year vocabulary instruction research project. The principles…

Literacy engagement is critical to the development of reading proficiency. Yet, many students, having had varied and often limited experiences with formal literacy practices, begin schooling in an interstitial state that might more accurately be called "pre-engagement" where though eager to learn, they are unsure how to fully focus on…

Despite over 25 years of research supporting the instruction of comprehension strategies, it seems that such instruction is not readily found in many classrooms or basal readers, resulting in students that struggle with analyzing and comprehending text. This is particularly true in the primary grades. Originally designed with seventh grade…

The disparity between the results of state accountability tests in reading and the fourth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has left many educators dismayed and concerned. In this article the authors describe a comparison of assessment approaches evident in NAEP to the approaches taken in a sample of state tests. The authors…

Informal classroom assessments remain essential tools for improving the instruction of students, even in an age of accountability testing. This article focuses specifically on Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs). Even though the growing number of commercially available IRIs has made choosing the ones most suitable for students' and teachers' needs…

High-stakes testing and accountability in the United States cloak the real purpose of assessment--diagnosing learning to inform instruction. Standardized testing drives curricula in many states. Teachers may feel pressured to "teach to the test," although they know it is not best practice. The authors discuss how using several…

High-quality professional development is essential in supporting accomplished teaching. But how is the efficacy of professional development evaluated? The authors present several methods for conducting a critical analysis of professional development. Using a large-scale professional development initiative as the focal point, they first explain…

Through the ethnographic methodological tools of formal and informal interviews, observations, participation in coplanning sessions, and analysis of literacy curricula, the researchers of this study found that effective teachers are finding ways to work successfully within the current political climate influenced by No Child Left Behind and the…

This article describes how one U.S. school district created a planned writing curriculum to provide strong, cohesive instruction for all students. Because of teacher preferences, some children received little instruction in expository writing, and scores on the state writing assessment fluctuated widely. The authors focus on how all teachers came…

Increasingly, mainstream U.S. classrooms include children who are English-language learners (ELLs). As a result, teachers need to become more aware of ways to assess the literacy progress of their ELL students. The first type of assessment that teachers need to make is to determine ELLs' literacy backgrounds. Teachers can use predictability logs…

Can students identify the practices that motivate them to read? If asked to evaluate which components of a reading program are beneficial in motivating them, can they identify a particular practice and explain why it was helpful? These were the two major questions asked of 22 fifth-grade students reflecting on their fourth-grade experience. A…

The current accountability movement has focused on academic achievement but has circumvented issues of motivation and authentic reading materials. Many educators have challenged this direction of the reading curriculum, particularly criticizing the narrowing of the curriculum, the continued focus of teaching to the tests, the overemphasis on…