Describes how Florida's reading professionals entered the legislative halls and prevailed, and provides a list of problems that other reading professionals might avoid in their political efforts to influence legislation. (RB)

In this article, the authors describe the balanced literacy pilot program at Monroe Middle School in Tampa, Florida. Monroe implemented the program as part of a districtwide effort to improve student literacy. It uses a four-pronged approach to improve literacy: (1) read-alouds; (2) independent reading; (3) shared reading; and (4) guided reading.…

Visual Phonics is an instructional program to provide print awareness, alphabet knowledge, and sound-letter correspondence for children with hearing loss who experience difficulty developing a foundation of phonemic awareness skills. Its purpose is "to clarify the sound symbol relationship between spoken English and print" (Waddy-Smith…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if there were commonalities in the approaches of 10 elementary school principals in the state of Florida identified as "success stories" in leading reading improvement in their schools in 2002, shortly after enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act at the national level and the Just…

A practicum encapsulated a reading skills assessment and intervention program utilizing computer-aided instruction and support activities for four 3-week sessions. The primary target population was the 43 juvenile delinquents at a Florida juvenile detention center who completed posttest measures. A total of 280 students participated in the…

The purpose of this study was to assess the reading growth of pupils in the Pinellas County (Florida) Reading System (PCRS) as compared with pupils in other types of reading programs. Data on 757 children in the target schools and 768 children in the comparison schools was analyzed. The conclusions reached in this evaluation were: that this study…

A practicum addressed the cognitive and affective needs of underachieving fifth grade students in a suburban school in southwest Florida. Twelve fifth grade students (the target group) were paired with same age tutors who provided supplemental reading instruction four times a week over a 12-week period. They also participated in weekly…

The practicum reported in this paper addressed the high percentage of children receiving below average grades in an average first grade reading comprehension class by implementing an integrated approach to reading. Various screening devices, a survey of kindergarten teachers, the Dolch Basic Sight Word Test, the Analytical Reading Inventory (Woods…

A program was developed and implemented to help identify, give direction to, and build self-confidence in children who lack emergent reading skills on entering first grade. Objectives were for 80% of the 18 students at a Florida elementary school to recognize the basic concepts about print, and that two or more cueing systems be used to decode or…

In Florida, Collier County Area Vocational-Technical Center's admissions policy for vocational programs admits all students who are prepared to learn, identifies those who require compensatory instruction, and channels both into appropriate programs by determining each student's reading achievement level and comparing it to the difficulty level of…

This coordinator's handbook describes the "Rockin' Readers" program, in which senior-citizen volunteers are matched with specifically targeted at-risk children (usually of kindergarten age or slightly older) in Alachua County, Florida, who tested below their peer group in language development and reading readiness skills. The handbook…

This final report of the 1974-75 Florida Right to Read Effort staff development program provides an evaluation by participating administrators, reading contacts, and teachers. The first two sections of this report give background information about the National Right to Read Effort as well as the Florida Right to Read program. The third section…

This bulletin describes Mobile Reading Centers which serve students with reading disabilities in grades 3 through 6 in Dade County, Florida schools. The centers consist of 5 buses which were formerly staffed by 3 remedial reading specialists (1965-1968) but, due to cutback in funds, are presently staffed with one specialist (1968-1969). The mobile…

Describes the competency-based teacher training system that will include reading- and math-related teaching skills generic to all vocational program areas and competencies specific to each program area; assessment criteria and learning activities for each competency; individualized, self-paced learning modules; a management system for the learning…

A practicum was developed which implemented various strategies to increase consistently below average reading comprehension scores of eighth-grade students. A targeted group of 16 students with middle ranking stanine scores was selected. Objectives included raising reading comprehension scores using task specific strategies, developing a more…