Increasing postsecondary access depends in large part on enhancing underrepresented students' writing ability, or college writing readiness. However, what exactly constitutes college-level writing is not clear-cut, complicating efforts to improve secondary preparation. This article examines recent efforts to define postsecondary writing,…

Writing performance for a large number of adolescents, with and without learning disabilities (LD), in the United States is below the level required for success in college and in the world of work. Despite the importance of writing and students' with LD documented difficulties in this academic domain, writing intervention research for adolescents…

Examines three Swedish research projects concerning how reading and writing are viewed in the preschool context. Finds that linguistic awareness is a precondition, stimulating linguistic awareness fosters literacy development, linguistic awareness activities are common in preschools, and attitudes have changed about when and how young children…

Public policy in France concerning the articulation of preschool education and primary education, particularly in the area of writing readiness and writing instruction, is discussed. A 1989 law expected to define, for the first time, the expected competencies at each educational level, was met with disappointment by early elementary school…

Writing to Read (WTR) is a computer-based instructional system designed to develop writing and reading skills of students in the primary grades. Evaluation of the WTR program in West Virginia was conducted with kindergarten students only. Thirty-one kindergartens in five counties were involved in the evaluation study as the treatment group,…

A study examined which phonological skills, as primary skills, can more effectively be developed and lead to decoding skills in low-skilled kindergartners: (1) segmentation/blending, or (2) rhyming/first sound identification? Low-skilled kindergartners (n=61), who scored less than 4 items correctly in 3 out of 5 measures, were randomly assigned to…

There are students whom teachers always seem to remember, primarily because they provide special insight into teaching and learning. These students, most of whom usually have learning difficulties in school, teach important lessons to teachers about determination, survival, and about becoming readers and writers. One such student is Kimberly,…