Children should develop literacy skills that progress from learning to read to reading to learn as they move from kindergarten through early elementary. These skills support reading proficiency and build knowledge in all subject areas. Students who struggle with literacy skills as early as kindergarten often continue to read below grade level…

The population of Spanish-speaking preschoolers in the United States continues to increase and there is a significant need to develop psychometrically sound early language and literacy screening measures to accurately capture children's ability in Spanish. In this paper, we describe the innovative design and calibration process of the new…

The Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) model is a comprehensive, strength-based approach to education that aims to improve achievement for all students by improving a school's effectiveness at building relationships, leveraging real-time student data, and capitalizing on the strengths of each student. The U.S. Department of Education's…

More than half of all school-age children in the United States read below grade level (NCES, 2012a). Seventy-five percent of all special education referrals are due to poor reading skills (NCES, 2012b). The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services reports that 50% or more of students with disabilities score at or below the 20th…

We investigated the latent factor structure of the "Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Kindergarteners" in Spanish ("PALS español K"). Participants included 590 Spanish-speaking, public-school kindergarteners from five states. Three theoretically-guided factor structures were measured and tested with one half of our…

This study contributes knowledge about how a digital badge system integrated into an online, subject-matter-specific, and competency-based professional development (PD) program affected teachers' experiences with and perceptions of the program activities. The report presents findings from a one-year exploratory study of an online PD program, and…

Developmental education, also termed remedial education, refers to curricula intended to improve the academic skills and knowledge of students who are underprepared for undergraduate coursework, particularly in the areas of mathematics, reading, and writing. Many practitioners and researchers agree that developmental education should be improved,…

AN EXPERIMENT WAS CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE EFFECT OF 2-WORD ASSOCIATIONS IN LEARNING TO READ THE SECOND WORD OF A 2-WORD CHAIN. ABOUT 45 FIRST AND SECOND GRADE STUDENTS WERE CHOSEN AS SUBJECTS AFTER PRETESTING TO INSURE THEY WERE ABLE TO READ THE FIRST (STIMULUS) WORD BUT NOT THE SECOND (RESPONSE) WORD OF EACH WORD PAIR USED IN THE STUDY. EIGHT…

THIS RESEARCH STUDY EVALUATED THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THREE METHODS OF FIRST-GRADE READING INSTRUCTION EMPLOYING SIMILAR BASAL READER STORY CONTENT. THE THREE METHODS WERE--(A) THE INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES OUTLINED IN THE TEACHERS MANUAL ACCOMPANYING THE GINN BASIC READING SERIES, (B) A LEVELS-DESIGNED PROGRAM STRESSING EARLY INTENSIVE LETTER…