Previous research suggests that activating background knowledge immediately prior to read-alouds in Kindergarten is an important strategy for improving children's learning (e.g. Cervetti & Hiebert, 2015). But, because children's background knowledge varies considerably at the individual level, teachers are also often providing relevant…

Measures of decoding and oral language have been shown to predict early reading comprehension across a wide variety of languages, though the timeframe and strength of the predictions vary by orthographic depth. This study is the first to examine predictors of early reading in Vietnamese, a transparent orthography of Romanized letters and…

In this large-scale study of students from Title 1 schools (N = 14,773), we used multiple-group latent change score (LCS) modeling to investigate the developmental relations between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension in students with a school-identified learning disability (LD; n = 627) and typically developing students (n = 14,146).…

The authors examined the associations between observed classroom management and teacher-child relationships with individual children during kindergarten and Grade 1. We used a sample of nonstruggling and struggling readers and their teachers in rural schools in the Southeastern United States to examine whether gender and struggling reader status…

In the current study we examined three questions. First: How does emergent bilingualism affect the development of metalinguistic awareness in kindergarten and first grade? We compared the changes in scores of tests of phonological awareness and morphological awareness from kindergarten to first grade, in two bilingual groups (Hebrew-Arabic and…

This technical report is an addendum to a study we initially reported on in 2014 (Wray, Lai, Saez, Alonzo, & Tindal, 2014). In response to a request for additional analyses, in particular reporting confidence intervals around the results, we re-analyzed the data from the Wray et al study. This supplementary report presents the results of the…

Although several measures are available for monitoring kindergarten reading progress, little research has directly compared them to determine which are superior in predicting year-end reading skills relative to other measures, and how validity may change across the school year as reading skills develop. A sample of 426 kindergarten students who…

Although letter naming fluency (LNF) and letter sound fluency (LSF) measures are widely available to educators for assessing early literacy skills of kindergarten children, better understanding of the contributions of these skills to reading development can help improve the interpretation of LNF and LSF data for instructional decisions. This study…

This article examined the extent to which administrative decisions that affected the implementation fidelity of Direct Instruction programs were related to student achievement. Data from three studies showed that administrative decisions that disregarded recommended protocols regarding teacher training, teacher preparation, and student schedules…

Bringing effective, research-based literacy interventions into the classroom is challenging, especially given the cultural and linguistic diversity of today's classrooms. We examined the promise of Assessment-to-Instruction (A2i) technology redesigned to be used at scale to support teachers' implementation of the individualized student instruction…

Bringing effective, research-based literacy interventions into the classroom is challenging, especially given the cultural and linguistic diversity of today's classrooms. We examined the promise of Assessment-to-Instruction (A2i) technology redesigned to be used at scale to support teachers' implementation of the individualized student instruction…

In a randomized-controlled trial we tested a computer-assisted intervention for the prevention of reading difficulties, delivered by nonprofessional tutors, running from kindergarten to halfway Grade 2. The full sample included 123 prereaders (M = 5; 6 years; 56 intervention; 67 controls) with low preliteracy skills. Parents were sent a…

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to overwhelm the functioning and outcomes of educational systems throughout the nation. The public education system is under particular scrutiny given that students, families, and educators are under considerable stress to maintain academic progress. Since the beginning of the crisis, school-systems…

Prior research on reading difficulties has mainly focused on word decoding problems. However, there exists another group of children -- poor comprehenders (PCs) -- who have normal word decoding abilities but difficulties in reading comprehension. Less is known about PCs especially in non-alphabetic languages such as Chinese. This study identified…

Throughout the country, state assessments in reading, mathematics, and science continue to play important roles in instructional improvement and accountability. State assessments must align to academic standards that are significantly more challenging than previous standards, reflecting the current knowledge and skill demands of postsecondary…