Two groups of children with moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were studied. Tests of reading and underpinning skills were administered. Comparisons were made with normally hearing children of the same age. While reading levels were found to be similar to their hearing peers, the phonological awareness and receptive vocabularies of the…

This research examined the effectiveness in an urban school district of 2 of the most widely used Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) programs-Direct Instruction (DI), implemented in 9 district elementary schools, and Success for All (SFA), implemented in 2 elementary schools. In examining impacts on student achievement and school change outcomes…

This article describes a day in the life of Charley Hoce, a teacher and poet. Hoce starts each day with at least an hour and a half of writing and revising before leaving for his teaching job at the National Trail Elementary School in New Paris, Ohio where he teaches reading and writing to first, second, and third graders, as well as Title I…

This book presents a selection of the research and papers presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the College Reading Association in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in October, 2006. This Yearbook begins with Karen Bromley's presidential address, which explored the future of writing by discussing four predictions: the notion that pens and pencils will be…

The "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (PL 107-110) established the Reading First (RF) Program (Title I, Part B, Subpart 1), a major Federal initiative designed to help ensure that all children can read at or above grade level by the end of third-grade. The legislation (Section 1205 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) requires…

Based on positive results from a previous evaluation of a summer learning intervention, the current report describes the specific elements of the successful program so it can be replicated, and investigates potential barriers to implementation and replication. The study estimated impacts of the program overall; the authors could not identify which…

In most elementary classrooms, students with autistic characteristics are too often dismissed from the literate community. The autistic child is frequently asked to practice memorizing sight words while classmates are introduced to literature. Although autistic children are increasingly being taught in general education classrooms, they are often…

In a 3-year longitudinal study, the authors examined the effect of Direct Instruction (DI) on students' reading achievement, teacher perceptions, nature of the classroom, and special education referral rate. Urban and suburban students completed the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests in the fall of Grade 1 and spring of Grades 1, 2, and 3. Teachers…

The authors recommend a reading tutoring lesson framework, in a checklist format, to guide volunteer tutors during tutoring sessions for children in elementary grades 1-3. The reading tutor checklist is intended to be used by literacy coaches, reading specialists, and classroom teachers to train literacy volunteers in schools. The checklist…

Why are children off task? What is going on in classrooms where a majority of children are off task? In this study we analyzed primary-grade classroom literacy instruction in which there was considerable off-task behavior. Using Turner and Paris's frame for understanding student motivation in the classroom, we analyzed 73 activity settings where…

The primary focus of this study was to evaluate the impact of an intervention reading program on students repeating the 8th grade in a large urban inner city school district. Two years of Reading and Language Art scores (n=537) were analyzed (NCE scores) across various demographic variables (attendance, English language proficiency, and…

In this commentary, the author identifies what, in her opinion, has been left out of the discussion of "scale up." She expresses particular concern that the rhetoric of scaling up, and the concomitant assertion of scientific underpinnings for programs brought to scale, may overstate the relation of the developers' programs and program materials to…

In this article, the author examines briefly several broad themes in reading reform to see what these can tell about policy makers' respect--or lack of respect--for teachers of reading. He talks about the current discourse of "scientifically-based" research which is about teachers, teachers who are blamed for reading failures. He…

Through building on and extending the metaphor of "orchestration," forwarded by reading scholars, this case study research describes and examines how an effective third-grade teacher organizes and facilitates high-quality reading instruction for African American students. Findings suggested that the teacher used three pedagogical strategies to…

Whether electronic books, CD-ROM'S, or interactive media are beneficial in teaching reading should be determined on evidence that they aid reading comprehension. Reading is worthless unless one comprehends. In order to examine the effectiveness of electronic books in a reading program, the characteristics and attributes of how…