Little empirical evidence suggested that independent reading abilities of students enrolled in biology predicted their performance on the Biology I Graduation End-of-Course Assessment (ECA). An archival study was conducted at one Indiana urban public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, by examining existing educational assessment data to test…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine what, if any, impact that attending a four year old kindergarten program had on five year old kindergarteners reading ability as measured by Dominie testing, compared to those five year olds who did not attend a four year old program at Inman Elementary School. The significance of this study…

In 2001 the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated that U.S. public schools provide evidence-based practice for individuals with learning disabilities. However, it is unclear whether U.S. public schools have consistently adhered to this mandate. The purpose of this study was to provide preliminary evidence regarding whether U.S. public schools…

This article describes a social and emotional learning intervention, the "Responsive Classroom"[R] (RC) approach, which is designed to produce classroom environments conducive to learning. It summarizes a new body of research describing the efficacy of the RC approach. One component of the RC approach is the Morning Meeting. This article…

The American public school curriculum has narrowed as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Music is being eliminated in public schools so more time and resources can be spent on "tested" subjects like reading and math. However, research has shown that both the intrinsic and extrinsic values of music may improve reading…

Many students at the Edward Coles Model for Excellence World Language Academy or the Rachel Carson Elementary School in Chicago--schools that takes part in the Striving Readers program--say they came to enjoy reading for the first time or became better readers through the program, now in its fourth year. The federal program supports the…

The ability to read fluently is a skill that is critical to reading and that is receiving increased attention in the special-education and literacy literature. The authors describe how one elementary school initiated an effective low-cost reading fluency intervention program with parent volunteers who served as reading tutors. Parent, teacher, and…

The random and sometimes erratic nature of state proficiency standards makes for an assessment system that is "slipshod," obscure, and potentially unreliable, contends an outspoken think tank's analysis of the testing benchmarks set by 26 states. The range of expectations--3rd grade reading proficiency can mean performing at the 6th…

Professional development can take many forms. The most effective development includes individual educators in the formation and planning process. Educator study groups are one form of professional development that allows major stakeholders in the education process the autonomy to develop individual and group goals. This often translates into an…

"Policy Perspectives" presents visiting authors' own views and/or research on issues relevant to schools and communities nationwide. The idea that reading skill is largely a set of general-purpose maneuvers that can be applied to any and all texts is one of the main barriers to our children's overall low achievement in reading, argues…

Schools across the nation are responding to reading assessment mandates by turning to DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), a program endorsed by the Federal Reading First Grant Office, to assess fluency on a range of reading-related tasks. DIBELS makes strong claims regarding its usefulness in documenting reading progress…

The validity of three subtests of the Dynamic Indicators for Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) was investigated for kindergarten children in a large urban school district. A stratified, random sample of 330 participants was drawn from an entire cohort of kindergarten children. Letter Naming Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, and Nonsense…

Assessment currently plays a critical role in American schools and society, in tasks ranging from ranking schools' effectiveness, to determining individual placement, to planning instruction. The purpose of the study was to gather data about the formal and informal assessment instruments and processes used by professionals in deaf education.…

A teacher of Limited English Proficient elementary students in California describes how she put her students through daily timed read-aloud drills to boost their scores on a benchmark assessment of reading rate that her school district required. Corn briefly reviews the rationale behind measuring reading rate as an indicator of fluency. The reason…

It turns out that in complying with the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), some states have decided to be a whole lot more generous than others in determining whether students are proficient at math and reading. Because each state selects its own testing system and sets its own passing scores, there is no direct way to compare the…