Validates the college-level designation of the Fry Graph using comparative validity data. (AEA)

Surveys members of the International Reading Association concerning current assessment practices. Finds that, although innovative assessment practices as well as those most often used tend to be more holistic/naturalistic in nature, some respondents listed standardized tests as an innovative approach for disabled readers. (RS)

Compares freshmen students' perceptions of their reading abilities with their actual abilities and their cumulative grade point averages. Concludes that students' perceptions of their abilities were independent of their actual reading abilities and students with the least accurate perceptions had the lowest cumulative grade point average after one…

Presents preliminary findings from a survey of portfolio practice in selected elementary schools across the United States. Suggests that portfolio assessment has rapidly become widespread in many schools. Raises concerns about the movement and offers suggestions for how it can realize its promises. (SR)

Proposes adapting holistic scoring to oral retellings of stories as a means of developing students' concepts of interrelationships and their higher levels of comprehension. (FL)

Documents the changes that occurred in one junior high school reading class as students prepared for a state-mandated test. Shows that discrepancies between the authentic instruction the students were used to and the rigid demands of the reading test were a shock to all involved. Maintains that authentic reading instruction deserves authentic…

Determines from empirical information on the application of four readability formulas to a group of widely used college economics textbooks that there is no consistency in the absolute reading levels or the rank orderings of these books. (AEA)

Describes a hierarchy intended to interpret and promote students' aesthetic responses to literature. Finds that students in grades 7 through 10, in contrast to younger readers, have moved into reflective thinking and evaluation. (SR)

Describes a natural student writing evaluation method in which students write letters to their teacher about their reading. Shows examples of letters from four typical students. Speculates on the function of the letters for each student. (RS)

Presents criteria to help teachers choose textbooks for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) composition students, based on how well each text teaches users to write argumentative essays (a form foreign to many ESL students). Evaluates 14 textbooks using these criteria. (SR)

Uses a scale to analyze three tests used for assessing community college students' reading levels: The Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT), the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT), and the Iowa Silent Reading Tests (ISRT). Judges the ISRT to be the best and the NDRT to be unacceptable according to the criteria of the scale. (FL)

Although a junior high school sustained silent-reading program showed no effect on student reading achievement, significant differences on four reading attitudes between students in that school and students in schools without such a program were considered tangible evidence supporting continuation of the program. (JT)

Describes a study of how more than 500 teachers responded to staff development sessions and reveals the characteristics of presenters that made such sessions successful. (AEA)

Enumerates results of a study which asked graduate students and doctoral candidates to read in diverse content areas and to select main idea statements for text. Concludes that readers often made initial hypotheses about the main idea and used the main idea construction processes of listing, draft and revise, and topic/comment after the text had…

Suggests reasons why a sustained silent-reading program failed to work at a San Diego high school. (JT)