A reprint of a classic review of research and research tends on reading that originally appeared in 1941 as the article "Reading" in the "Encyclopedia of Educational Research," this monograph sets forth the views of William S. Gray, an eminent reading educator and theorist. The 11 sections of the review discuss the following topics: (1) the…

In order to substantiate the need for college level developmental reading programs, this paper reviews research conducted in the area from 1971 to 1981. The paper provides bibliographic information for 96 entries drawn from a search of ERIC, Dissertation Abstracts International, the William S. Gray Research Collection in Reading, and journals in…

The research described in this report is the first part of an attempt to study the development of both overall reading ability and verbal encoding efficiency in an effort to see how the two are related. The report proposes a theory of prerequisite or hierarchical relationships and suggests that there may be differences between performance of a…

This paper discusses an investigation that compared college students' reading gains when using general or specific diagnosis. It reports that significant gains were made on many subskills of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test by the group that had the prescriptions developed as a result of a differential (specific) diagnosis and that there were…

Representative research studies of the interference of Vernacular Black English (VBE) on beginning reading of VBE speakers at the phonological, grammatical, and lexical and content levels are examined. The following conclusions emerge: (1) phonological interference in learning to read has not been established; (2) VBE does not clearly interfere…

Nigerian anthropologist John Ogbu examines the academic failure of minority groups within the context of American society and draws comparisons to minority group education in five other cultures. (MKM)

Results of a quantitative analysis of empirical evidence related to parent-preschooler reading support the hypothesis that parent-preschooler reading is related to outcome measures such as language growth, emergent literacy, and reading achievement. Book reading apparently affects acquisition of the written language register. (SLD)

Evaluations of IBM's Writing to Read program for kindergartners and first graders are reviewed. The 21 kindergarten studies evidenced a median effect size of 0.23; however, in many cases this effect may be a result of comparisons with nonacademic programs. Across 13 first grade studies, the median effect size was 0.00. (TJH)

This paper addresses the study of children's reading interests and their attitudes toward reading as these factors relate to leisure-time reading. The problem of poor performances on measures of reading achievement by African-American children from low-income families has been studied for over 3 decades. Additionally, sociocultural and…

A review of the research on the effects of parental influence and parental involvement on children's reading achievement indicates that when parents take an active and positive part in their child's education the results often turn out well for the student. Parental influence is defined as any opinion, attitude, or action (other than direct…

To examine the problem of widening gaps in reading achievement between initially low-achieving children and other students as they move through elementary school, the authors first reviewed the literature on school effectiveness. Using a form of systems analysis called "system dynamics," they formulated a model and a set of hypotheses…

A review of the literature investigated how computers have been used in relation to the teaching of reading over the last 20 years, how effective those endeavors and research studies (mainly conducted at the college level) have been, and what computer instructional programs in the area of reading need to address. Various efforts have been made to…

The Culturally Appropriate Teaching (C.A.T.) method combines the "Back to Basics" paradigm with a culturally oriented approach and has proved to be successful in Black colleges and adult education programs. The C.A.T. method improves the reading levels of students by two years per semester and gives them standard English as a skill in one or two…

Discusses some current concepts of the laterality/reading relationship. An overview of Samuel T. Orton's hypotheses of cerebral dominance and "strephosymbolia" is provided, and both visual half-field and dichotic listening studies as direct, empirical tests of laterality are discussed. (MKM)

A brief survey of several comprehensive reviews of studies of the effects of desegregation on black achievement makes it clear that the experts are still in disagreement, and it is in the hope of finally bringing about a consensus on the subject that the National Institute of Education (NIE) has established a representative panel of experts to…