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…

"Teacher, I can read!" exclaimed Saree, a fourth-quarter second grader who was placed in the lowest of reading groups at a southwest side elementary school in Chicago. This was her proud announcement after three weeks of intensive intervention with Ms. Gomez, a student teacher in her final semester at Chicago State University. "Ms.…

Numerous studies have identified isolated elements for successfully teaching early reading. However, very few studies have examined the effect of early reading programs that use a combination of multiple research-based practices. A 4-year longitudinal study starting with 243 students was conducted to determine the effects of the "Reading in…

The Illinois Striving Readers (ISR) Project had two purposes: (1) implement a supplemental reading intervention for students in ninth grade who were reading below grade level; and (2) study the impact of the intervention on students' performance on standardized assessments using a randomized control trial design. The Illinois Striving Readers…

In this article, the author shares her journey with evidence-based reading instruction. Her experience with evidence-based reading instruction (as the adult basic education coordinator at Windham Adult Education in Windham, Maine) has been a journey of change both professionally and programmatically, and the students at Windham Adult Education are…

Success for All (SFA) is a comprehensive reading, writing, and oral language development program for students in pre-K through eighth grade. Its underlying premise is that all children, including those with limited English proficiency, can and should be reading in English at grade level by the end of third grade. (SFA can impact Spanish literacy…

A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE RELEVANT TO THE PROBLEM OF PURPOSEFUL READING AND COMPREHENSION REVEALS THE NEED TO HELP CHILDREN ESTABLISH A MENTAL SET OR PURPOSEFUL ATTITUDE PRIOR TO READING. TO EVALUATE A THOUGHT-DIRECTING QUESTION AS A PURPOSE PRIOR TO READING AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY, 279 SIXTH GRADERS FROM THREE SCHOOLS IN HAMMOND,…

This booklet presents descriptions of the 22 Illinois schools that were identified by the Best Practices and Resource Committee of the Right to Read Initiative as providing leadership and learning in the area of best practices in reading. The description of each school's program includes demographic data; data on which of the 14 best practices in…

This article reports that educators and experts across the country who work with English-language learners (ELLs) are moving toward a consensus that the federal Reading First program needs to be refined to become more effective for children acquiring English. Administrators in several big-city districts with large numbers of such students are…

THE INDIVIDUALIZED METHOD OF TEACHING READING IS BEING USED IN SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, AND MORE AND MORE SCHOOLS ARE BEGINNING TO TRY IT. THE MONOGRAPH WAS PREPARED TO HELP THOSE INTERESTED IN INDIVIDUALIZED READING TO UNDERSTAND THE METHOD, THE PROBLEMS WHICH MAY ARISE, AND HOW IT COMPARES, IN DETAIL, WITH THE METHOD OF GROUP READING.…

SPECIALLY ADJUSTED ENGLISH COURSES FOR UNDERACHIEVING STUDENTS IN GRADES 10 THROUGH 12 WERE SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO EMPHASIZE READING SKILLS. A 15-STUDENT SAMPLE WAS DIVIDIED INTO ONE EXPERIMENTAL AND TWO CONTROL GROUPS AND WAS MATCHED ON IQ, READING ACHIEVEMENT, AND GRAMMAR. THE DATA WERE GATHERED OVER A PERIOD OF 1 ACADEMIC YEAR, AND THE…

Based on proven research, this booklet summarizes essential information of how children learn to read and how to teach beginning reading skills. After a foreword, the booklet discusses the Illinois Right to Read Initiative (a blueprint for significantly improving reading and literacy among students over the next five years) and summarizes the…

This action research outlines an early reading intervention project for improving students' reading skills and promoting the implementation of early reading intervention programs. The targeted population includes first and second grade students in one school located in the suburbs of a major city in Illinois. The problem of early reading…

A study examined an early reading intervention program designed to lead children, identified with low reading readiness at the start of first grade, to an appropriate reading level by the end of a 6-month period. Subjects were students entering first grade in a middle class community in northern Illinois. The problems of low reading readiness were…

This report describes an intervention to aid students in demonstrating their comprehension of reading material through an alternative instrument. The target population consisted of fifth grade students in a middle class community in central Illinois. Problems in comprehension were revealed through declining district test scores and teacher…