Because dual-language books (DLBs) print the entire text in two languages nearby on the page, they have great potential for supporting children's biliteracy development by providing contexts to compare/contrast languages. However, little is known about how children read DLBs independently and how they may/may not use such characteristics to…

Despite the importance placed on reading in the classroom, an unacceptable number of students lack the literacy skills essential to succeed in today's knowledge-based economy, putting them at greater risk of persistent unemployment and other forms of economic hardship. The problem is that public charter elementary (K-4) school intervention…

The Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) brings significant changes as well as opportunities for schools to improve their students' academic outcomes. One proposed regulation is for states to analyze the performance of student subgroups separately in order to show how states are levelling the playing field over time to ensure educational equity. This…

Given the importance of federal legislation in combating educational inequities, particularly those in reading development, the identification of specific school-based variables that contribute to reading proficiency for struggling readers is paramount. While federal education policy, such as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 (2002)…

In this commentary, the authors bring insights from their work on science-literacy integration at the elementary level to bear on the ongoing conversation about disciplinary literacy at the middle and secondary levels. In particular, the authors discuss what they have learned about inquiry, disciplinary reading strategies, and the role of text in…

This study reports data from a year-long ethnographic case study of a third-grade teacher's literacy instruction for her linguistically and culturally diverse students. Specifically, we use Bourdieu's social practice theory (1991, 1998) to examine the teacher's linguistic and literate habitus and the discourses of the field converge in her use of…

Teachers at a Title I elementary school in South Carolina implemented the scripted Reading Mastery© program (RMP) to improve students' comprehension. Comprehension scores did not increase, despite teachers receiving RMP professional development (PD) prior to implementing the program. Administrators were unaware if the teachers were adequately…

This study examined the effectiveness of a pilot program utilizing practice standardized test questions for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in an economically disadvantaged school and evaluated the impact of the pilot program on pre- and post-test practice tests in language arts literacy and on the 2009 New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge…

Hands-on explorations can be extended through interactions with informational texts, enhancing both science learning and literacy development. In this article, the author describes a primary-grade science activity that begins with students examining pine cones and sharing their experiences and observations with peers. The students then generate…

As a result of recent federal legislation, school districts are being required to have all students reading at grade level by the year 2012. Such an exceedingly lofty goal cannot be achieved without powerful intervention programs. Here is a guide for districts and schools that outlines an intervention program for students in grades 1-3 who…