Background/Context: In the past two decades there have been at least 10 quantitative reviews, syntheses, or meta-analyses focused on literacy interventions in secondary schools. To date, much of this research has focused on quantifiable outcomes such as reading test scores, and few efforts have been made to synthesize studies of adolescent…

Replies to an article in this issue that responded to an earlier article ("On Balanced Reading") by this author. Argues that Welna's unbalanced coverage of research and critique is the very fuel that continues the Reading Wars. Argues that a study of past and present research can lead the profession to common ground. (SR)

Noting that 80% of children will learn to read no matter what method is used to teach them, this information sheet offers a brief overview of research on reading impairments undertaken at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The information sheet first describes the casualties of mild and severe reading…

Reviews materials from the ERIC database describing the variety of functions a high school reading lab can perform and suggesting ways to evaluate student improvement in the reading lab situation. (MKM)

The traditional college required remedial reading course has many shortcomings: students are stigmatized by forced placement and resent the course; dropout rates are higher; and high-risk students who take the course take longer to complete degrees and take longer to shed the high-risk label. The skills taught tend to be speed, vocabulary, and…

The primary purpose for reading is to derive the meaning of an author's message, which has been transmitted through print, as it relates to the reader's personal need to go from a point of lesser to greater information. Within the college reading improvement program, the many purposes surrounding reading should intersect to form the basis for…

Provides independent analysis of the extant evaluations of Reading Recovery. Finds that students make greater than expected gains in reading, effects comparable to those accomplished by other effective educational interventions; and that programs are less effective in maintaining student gains and more costly than has been claimed. Offers…

This paper provides an overview of Houghton Mifflin's Soar to Success, a commercially published intervention program designed to accelerate reading growth for students reading below grade level in grade 3 and above. Soar to Success uses fast-paced, structured lessons focusing on comprehension and decoding strategies, is intended for use with small…

In the neurological impress method the teacher sits slightly behind the child, a book is held jointly, and the teacher and child read aloud simultaneously with the teacher directing his/her voice into the child's ear as the child slides a finger along each line following the words as they are spoken. No attempt is made to teach sounds or word…

Identifies 10 areas that are vital to successful remedial reading instruction and offers specific suggestions of ways to ensure success in each area based on a theoretical view of reading as an active, thinking process influenced by a child's conceptual abilities and language experience. (FL)

Noting that the Neurological Impress Method (NIM) of reading instruction has been shown to be an effective intervention strategy for use with remedial readers, this paper examines the theoretical and empirical validity of NIM techniques. The discussion focuses on (1) a procedural description of the technique, which involves having student and…

A case study examined the whole-part application of the language experience approach to reading as used for students whose reading development is severely delayed. The subject, a third-grade female student reading on the first-grade level as determined by the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised (Woodcock, 1987), participated in a reading…

This report analyzes the longitudinal effects of schoolwide Chapter 1 initiatives on student reading achievement in 40 elementary schools in a large urban school district. The analyses find that, compared to control students, first-graders in schoolwide projects showed no achievement effects, second-graders showed positive significant effects,…

To ascertain the relevancy of behavioral psychology to those who are engaged in developmental work with college and adult students, this paper reviews articles found in several journals concerned with that discipline. The articles reviewed were chosen as representative of those pertaining to achieving academic success and are organized into five…

Reviews reading research in Great Britain in 1987, focusing on: parental involvement; preschool literacy; oral reading; remedial reading; writing, spelling, and handwriting; word recognition; comprehension; reading and thinking; and reading schemes. Suggests that future literacy research should reflect alternative means of investigation and a…