This report presents a summary of Virginia's response to the U.S. Department of Education's (USED) decision on proposed amendments to the Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook required in the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001." A June 8, 2004 letter by Thomas M. Jackson (President, Virginia Board of Education) to Raymond…

Literacy instruction does not end with reading success in early grades. As students move to middle and high school, new challenges emerge that can affect literacy achievement. Even for students who achieve early reading and writing success, the literacy demands of middle and high school can pose substantial challenges. Older students must be able…

In the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2000 study, Finnish students showed significantly higher reading achievement than students of any other country/region. Finland also ranked among the best five countries in mathematical and scientific literacy. In Finland, the gap between high and low performers was relatively narrow,…

This volume discusses factors that affect struggling readers in grades 7-12 and provides research-based strategies for improving their reading and writing skills. Chapters examine why some adolescents have trouble achieving reading proficiency, describe school-wide policies and programs that support literacy, and suggest age-appropriate classroom…

The importance of state academic standards soared in January 2002 with passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Not only does that milestone law require all states to have demanding academic standards in place and to demonstrate steady student progress toward academic proficiency as set forth in those standards, it also links states'…

Results of a previous meta-analysis of gender differences in reading achievement at the secondary school level (Lietz, in press) showed significant differences between major assessment programs. Thus, the gender gap in favour of girls was more pronounced for the assessment programs conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Programs in…

The proportion of public schools' meeting their prescribed achievement targets under the No Child Left Behind Act appears to have fallen slightly in the 2005-06 school year, while the percent classified under the law as needing improvement increased. The trends bear out earlier predictions that schools would find it increasingly hard to show…

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) "Special Education at a Glance," which includes a copy of the "Guide to Planning and Assessing School-Based Special Education Programs," provides in a single document, information about the special education population at each Montgomery County (Maryland) public school, including…

Under the Florida A+ Accountability Program, Florida's schools are graded based on student performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Previously, when schools would earn their second failing grade within four years, students assigned to these schools were offered school vouchers which parents and guardians could use to transfer…

Kentucky's school reform accountability goal of each school reaching an academic measure of "proficiency" by 2014 illuminated the findings in recent statewide reading test scores: 44.30% of middle and 71.25% of high school students scored below "proficient." The research question for this exploratory, descriptive study was,…

This study uses data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) and the Programme for International Assessment (PISA) to measure the difference in reading performance between students in rural and urban schools in each Canadian province and to identify factors that may help to explain rural-urban differences. The study looks at some of the factors…

Data were reanalyzed from a previously reported study of the passage dependence of reading comprehension questions being developed for the revised SAT. The objective was to uncover any gender differences in approaches to and performance on a task requiring examinees to answer reading comprehension questions without reading the passages on which…

This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's (AISD's) Account for Learning evaluation report and action plan for 1999-2002.

The study analyzes the achievement trends of all third grade students in the state of Illinois who scored in the Exceeds category in reading and mathematics on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in the year 2000. ISAT performance of this cohort group of students was followed through the eighth grade. Descriptive analyses were utilized…

Struggling adolescent readers need interventions that provide them with opportunities to read more and to read better. The authors examine two case studies of interventions at work and propose criteria on which to evaluate intervention programs. Their review of the evidence on these programs for struggling adolescent readers suggests that at least…