The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), in partnership with the National Assessment Governing Board and the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), created the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in 2002 to support the improvement of student achievement in the nation's large urban districts. NAEP TUDA results in mathematics…

Student underachievement in kindergarten through Grade 3 continues to be a challenge in the Philadelphia School District. The purpose of this quantitative descriptive correlation study was to examine, using record archives from one Philadelphia school, whether there is a relationship between (a) reading achievement scores for the Dynamic…

A mixed-methods study was conducted to determine if extra reading practice incorporated into fifth-and sixth-grade social studies and science content classes would have a positive impact on reading assessments for readers at risk. At-risk readers' independent reading levels were assessed using Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills or…

The study reviewed in this paper examined the effects of a web-based tutoring program, "Intelligent Tutoring of the Structure Strategy" ("ITSS"), on the reading comprehension of fourth-grade students in language arts classrooms. The analysis included 1,875 to 2,371 fourth-grade students from 100 to 117 classrooms in…

Although reading is a vital component of academic, career, and social success, the majority of adolescents struggle to read proficiently. As a result, there has been increased attention on reading instruction for older adolescents and on what programs, methods, and tools are highly effective in improving their reading achievement. Since motivation…

This study evaluated how comic books and graphic novels enhanced the reading comprehension of the students enrolled in the intermediate reading course at Western Pennsylvania Community College. The three research questions are: (1) How can a developmental reading course make use of comics as a learning tool? (2) What impact does reading comics…

Staff development training is a method many public schools employ in an effort to prepare their teaching staff to better meet the demands of effectively educating district students. In this mixed methods case study quantitative and qualitative data was incorporated to answer four research questions: (1) How accurately do scores achieved by…

This article reports on the student achievement outcomes for third graders in Reading First (RF) schools in Pennsylvania over the five years of implementation for the group as a whole, for disaggregated groups of third graders, and for third graders who received reading instruction in RF schools for one, two, and three years. We also present a…

This study examined the effects of online reading instruction for at-risk fourth-grade students in Philadelphia. The authors used a multiple baseline design to assess the extent to which the students increased their oral reading rate given systematic supplemental online reading instruction. Tutoring consisted of 4 sessions per week with 50-min…

Previous research has demonstrated that various reading intervention strategies have shown improvement over time. In a rural south central Pennsylvania school district, 25% of the third grade students are not proficient in reading, leading to possible disadvantages throughout life. This study investigated whether the theory of automaticity…

"Corrective Reading" is designed to promote reading accuracy (decoding), fluency, and comprehension skills of students in grades 4-12 who are reading below their grade level. The program includes four sequential levels that address students' decoding skills and six sequential levels that address students' comprehension skills. The levels…

Motivation is an essential component in developing a love of reading in middle level struggling students. For these readers, novels in verse bridge the gap to more challenging pieces of literature. In this article, Title One students explored Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson and learned that they, too, are poets. (Contains 9 figures.)

The purpose of this study is to identify the self-reported research-based instructional and assessment practices used by third through fifth grade teachers among rural school environments in Western Pennsylvania which have attained Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) pursuant to statewide assessments. Specifically, this study examines the…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students with significant cognitive impairments make measurable gains in reading skills as measured by the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests--Revised when taught using Direct Instruction reading programs. Additionally, the study explored teacher perceptions of the effectiveness of Direct Instruction…

Randomized field trials were used to examine the impact of the Teacher Study Group (TSG), a professional development model, on first grade teachers' reading comprehension and vocabulary instruction, their knowledge of these areas, and the comprehension and vocabulary achievement of their students. The multisite study was conducted in three large…