The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study was to examine the impact of school closure on beginning-of-the-year readiness for third-grade students in a rural Northeastern North Carolina school district. The research compared third-grade students' beginning-of-the-year reading readiness during the 2019-2020 school year to third-grade…

In this preregistered study, we used latent change score models to address two research aims: (1) whether preschool-aged children's language gains, over a year of early childhood education, were associated with later performance on state-mandated, literacy-focused kindergarten readiness and Grade 3 reading achievement assessments; and (2) whether…

Background: Dyslexia is a specific reading disability characterized by word recognition difficulties that can qualify a student for special education services under the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" (IDEA; 2004; Yudin, 2015). As of 2024, 49 US states have legislation defining dyslexia and enumerating for schools…

A balanced assessment system is vital to the instructional process in all schools. This system includes both formative and summative assessment measures. Both assessments provide data that can inform curriculum design and the instructional process. The purpose of this study was to examine the predicative validity of formative diagnostic and…

This investigation explored the relationship between educator preparation programs and teachers' perceptions of instructional readiness in foundational literacy skills. This study also examined the impact that early childhood, elementary, and specialty endorsement education programs of study, reading methods courses, and clinical field experiences…

Grounded in the simple view of reading, this study tracked the development of print-processing skill in high-, average-, and low-achieving readers at six time points across grades 1-3. Results showed large between-group differences in sight vocabulary, oral reading accuracy, and oral reading rate that remained stable from beginning of first grade…

Preschool reading readiness is an issue with growing interest. The preschool years provide an opportune time when reading difficulties are more easily altered through exposure to early literacy skills. This paper extends the authors' previous research by examining the kindergarten performance of a cohort of children from a multi-year research…

In Wisconsin, increased academic performance has been a general assumption supporting the institutionalization and public funding of early childhood instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between attendance in public four-year-old kindergarten and elementary level reading performance. This study…

Asking questions to promote higher-level thinking is often promoted as a way to challenge students, especially talented readers, to think more deeply about text and share their thinking. Recent research in a variety of educational fields has indicated that follow-up questions may be used to move all students forward in their abilities to…

State and local assessment data from 117 students in one school in the California Central Valley were examined to determine how much participation in a kindergarten through second grade multitiered reading intervention model contributed to third grade reading achievement, over and above the demographic factors of ethnicity, socioeconomic status,…

Parents are their children's first and foremost important teachers. This paper presents some ways parents can help their children "get ready to read" during the ages of 2, 3, 4 and 5. This paper also offers several checklists for parents of kindergartners, first graders, second graders, and third graders.