This publication was developed to provide factual information and interpretive commentary on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in Reading, a federally funded survey of the educational attainments of representative samples of children and adults in the United States. It summarizes the context and results of the 1970-71 and 1974-75…

A review of literature indicates that schools with effective reading programs tend to have common characteristics, such as a strong commitment to improved reading; a competent teaching and administrative staff; clearly defined objectives; a structured, intensified program; adequate assessment techniques; a variety of materials; and parental…

Reviews research on the relationship between children's television viewing and their school achievement and describes learning activities related to television that are designed to teach vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension; promote independent reading; and encourage students to become more critical viewers. (Author/EM)

This research review identifies parental roles and practices that have been shown to promote reading readiness, receptivity to reading instruction, and increased achievement in reading. Reviews studies of intervention and involvement programs designed to expand or alter parental practices in improving children's reading attitudes and achievement.…

Intended to provide background information to state leaders as they play an increasingly visible role in reading programs, this policy brief notes that too many students are not reading at grade level and apparently are not receiving adequate opportunities to catch up to their peers. The brief is in 7 sections. The first is "How Well Are Students…

Contains an assessment of the inner-city literacy crisis, a critique of rationales for reading failure based on "deficit" and "difference" type ideologies, a call for the study of successful inner-city schools, an evaluation of G. Weber's study of successful inner-city schools, and the development of an urban literacy agenda. (FL)

Reports on several studies that examined the use of newspapers in classrooms. Cites research supporting the conclusions that newspaper training programs improved teacher attitudes toward using newspapers in the classroom and newspaper use influenced students' reading attitudes, reading interests, reading achievement, and classroom verbal…

This article considers the research evidence from United Kingdom evaluations of integrated learning systems, systems that include extensive computer-based courseware plus management software. It discusses the value of these systems for pupils with learning difficulties and focuses on their effects on the reading attainments of pupils who are lower…

Reviews of research, studies of early readers, and investigations of emergent literacy uniformly conclude that parents' beliefs, aspirations, and actions affect their children's growth into and embracing of literacy. However, conflicting results call into question the utility of simply correlating race or various socioeconomic factors, such as…

School and teacher factors associated with reading achievement are compared to items from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1985 reading assessment. Significant factors which appeared in the literature included: methods and materials, time on task, difficulty level and high teacher expectation, teacher qualifications, student…

Focusing on trends in reading achievement during the period from l970 to l984, this report draws from national assessments that involved more than 250,000 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. The first chapter (1) provides an overview of the report; (2) summarizes recent achievements documented by the…

Drawing on communications, psychological, and educational studies, this paper examines television's influence on reading performance and school achievement. The first section of the paper reviews and synthesizes major studies dealing with the introduction of television in a community and with correlations between television use and school…

Noting that reading development is a crucial factor in breaking down social, intellectual, and political barriers, this paper uses Nigeria as an example of a developing multilingual country in order to examine the problems and challenges that learners and educators in multilingual societies face. The discussion is focused on children at the…

A review of literature by reading authorities identified seven criteria necessary for meaningful research about reading readiness tests. These criteria were then used in analysis of 15 research studies dealing with the "Metropolitan Readiness Test" and first grade reading achievement. Five major findings resulted from this analysis:…

The relationship between performance on various Piagetian and reading achievement tasks as examined through 26 correlational studies is reviewed. The following areas of concern are addressed: (1) sample characteristics of the subjects; (2) classification of the Piagetian tasks into five categories of logical operations, spatial concepts, general…