Unfortunately for students, school reading has become an institution-- a powerful, organized machine that dooms the whole educational enterprise to mediocrity. This article presents 31 grievances against the present system and advocates replacing the vacuous, contrived subject called reading with the teaching of genuine subjects. (MLH)

Describes and evaluates the Test of Awareness of Language Segments (TALS), discussing the test administration, scoring, interpretation, reliability, and validity. Recommends TALS for evaluating a child's readiness for reading instruction, and for suggesting appropriate instructional interventions. (MM)

"The Critical Word Factor," based on word recognition demands of texts, is a measure of text difficulty designed specifically for texts used by beginning readers. The measure is a function of the number of new, unique words per 100 running words of text that fall outside a designated curriculum. The authors investigated the validity of the…

Foster children are at great risk for poor school outcomes. Given that school readiness is a powerful predictor of later school success, the promotion of school readiness skills in foster children is an opportunity for preventive intervention. Results are presented from a preliminary evaluation of a program designed to improve school readiness in…

Concludes that, while art activities can be defended as a way of adding variety or diversion in the teaching of reading, the proposition that they have a direct and positive influence on children's learning to read cannot be supported. (GT)

Determining the cross-cultural equivalence of multilingual tests is a challenge that is more complex than simple horizontal equating of test forms. This study examines the functioning of a trilingual test of preschool readiness to determine the equivalence. Different forms of the test have previously been examined using classical statistical…

"Waterford Early Reading Level One"[TM] is an emergent literacy curriculum that uses computer-based technology to prepare children for reading. It begins with a tutorial to familiarize the child with the computer and mouse and a reading placement evaluation to assess and determine whether a child should work on "Level One"…

Rhyming tests have historically been used in the education system to assess reading readiness. English language learners (ELLs) have consistently scored poorly on these assessment tools. The current article examines a possible reason for this poor performance by ELLs. Specifically, the authors examined the relationship between semantic…

Explores the concept of emergent literacy, discussing what children know about reading and writing, how they come to know it, and what this information means for classroom practices and school policy. (MM)

Presents research findings about the development of metalinguistic awareness (MLA) in young children. Discusses MLA and reading readiness, and the implications for beginning reading instruction. Suggests various reading methods which allow children with both high and low levels of MLA to develop literacy. (MM)

Examined the relationship between cognitive style and reading readiness in 104 kindergarteners before and after a visual discrimination treatment designed to modify conceptual impulsivity. Correlations were also obtained between errors and latencies on the Matching Familiar Figures Test and performance on the Metropolitan Readiness Test. No…

The article by Speece (in this issue) underscores the disappointing accuracy results of early screening for reading difficulties and argues that development conceptualized as rate of learning matters. We respond by emphasizing three points. First, the purpose of early screening could be identifying students not at risk so that instructional…

Preschool and kindergarten teachers can help young learners meet early literacy standards without sacrificing developmentally appropriate practice. Several professional associations have described appropriate expectations for children of different age levels known as milestones, developmental accomplishments, and benchmarks. (MLH)

Literacy education in Jamaica lacks an officially accepted policy and methodology for teaching creole speakers. This has led to a low literacy level across the population. The distinctive features of Jamaican Creole are highlighted in this article in order to give theoretical and pedagogical insights to literacy teachers. (VM)

A discussion of pre-reading exercises in second language reading instruction looks at the theoretical justification for advance organizers in particular, examines the types of background knowledge that fluid reading requires, and gives models for exercises designed to activate this knowledge. Examples are from French texts. (MSE)