We examined student-, classroom-, and school-level effects in predicting second-grade Spanish-speaking children's oral reading fluency in Spanish. Teachers in 67 randomly selected urban schools administered the Tejas LEE to 1,537 first- and second-grade students. Oral reading fluency was measured in the passages students read for comprehension.…

In developing countries, the role of the home environment in children's development of literacy skills is largely unknown. This study examines the relationship in a sample of 75 grade two children from rural eastern Tanzania. It also discusses the role of house building material and domestic facilities, in addition to parents' education and…

Despite impressive advances in the science of reading intervention, how to best help at-risk readers remains a point of contention. Because reading represents the synthesis of background factors and language and reading skills--all of which develop with age and experience--this meta-analysis investigated whether development (as approximated by…

What is the nature of learning to read Chinese across grade levels? This study tested 199 kindergartners, 172 second graders, and 165 fifth graders on 12 different tasks purportedly tapping constructs representing phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic processing, and subcharacter processing. Confirmatory factor analyses…

This article presents a case study investigating the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve second language and reading proficiency of a seven-year-old Chinese-speaking ELL, Xin Wei, who completed second grade at a diverse metropolitan elementary school in the U.S. While a single case study cannot answer all the questions that arise as…

Reading is the most valuable skill children must master early in schooling. Unfortunately, many students struggle to read and may be identified as having a Reading Disability (RD). In this dissertation, I explored the usefulness of the Response-to-Intervention (RtI) framework for identifying children with RD by examining the use of 1st and 2nd…

The purpose of these five related studies was to ascertain the effects of a music curriculum designed to enhance reading skills of second-grade students. The dependent variables were subtest scores on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test administered pre and post the music/reading intervention. Results showed that the total test gain scores of…

By means of the moving window paradigm, we examined how many letters can be identified during a single eye fixation and whether this letter identity span changes as a function of reading skill. The results revealed that 8-year-old Finnish readers identify approximately 5 characters, 10-year-old readers identify approximately 7 characters, and…

Although current categories of learning disabilities include as specific disabilities calculation and mathematical problem solving [see IDEA reauthorization, 2004, Sec. 300.8(c)(10)], the majority of research focuses on calculation disabilities. Previous studies have shown, however, that deficits in word problem solving difficulties are persistent…

The purpose of this inductive and quantitative research study is to examine the influence of dual language education upon the development of literacy skills in English proficient kindergarten through grade 2 students. Secondly, this research is purposed to aid in filling the void in the limited way in which educational researchers have examined…

Reviews of research on rural education suggest that identifying ways to help rural schools improve teachers' pedagogical skills should be a high priority. This article addresses this issue by examining changes in reading skills through the primary grades of students in three rural, Midwestern districts that occurred after the implementation of a…

The low achievement of students from non-English-speaking households living in low socioeconomic contexts is associated with academic skill gaps evident at kindergarten entry. Yet, few cost-effective, valid instruments are available to assess these students' school readiness. To examine this topic, this longitudinal study followed 1,069 primarily…

Conversation is a strategy that helps students build reading skills and improve reading comprehension. It is not widely used in the primary grades due to limited time and perceived effort by the teacher. This study describes the implementation of connection prompts with second-grade students in book clubs. These prompts were cues implemented by…

A gap remains in the literature addressing reading intervention programs that have been successful for students identified as at risk of reading failure in grades kindergarten through second. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how the Scott Foresman Early Reading Intervention Program supported the improvement of literacy…

This study examined whether the "Experience Corps" program improved the reading skills of elementary school students who were at risk of academic failure. Nearly 900 first through third grade students in 23 schools in Boston, New York City, and Port Arthur, TX participated in the study. These students were randomly assigned to either a…