In 1998 and again in 2002, samples of eighth grade students in California were tested in reading as part of the state-level component of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). In each of these years, all eighth graders in the state were also required to participate in the state's accountability testing, which included the reading…

Issues 248 through 255 of "Fast Facts" from the Library Research Service present data gleaned from libraries in Colorado and across the nation. Topics addressed in these "Fast Facts" from 2007 include the library labor market, the benefits to libraries of using a statewide courier service, and the results of a patron survey at…

This paper discusses a Standard & Poor's analysis of state performance on the 2005 and 2003 NAEP reading and mathematics tests that took account of the demographic differences among the states. The study was presented at the NAEP State Service Center Winter Workshop in January, 2006. Standard & Poor's is commended for recognizing that NAEP…

A total of 1,718 pre-K students had valid PPVT-III/TVIP pre- and posttest scores, and an analysis showed that 77% were in the average range at post-test in their language of instruction. An analysis of 2007 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) reading and mathematics data for a cohort of students who attended pre-K in the 2002-2003…

This report outlines the results of a two year implementation of the Nebraska's Reading First initiative. Over three thousand six hundred students from Kindergarten to Third grade were included in the project. Results indicated significant growth across all demographic groups. Student performance in the earlier grades has shown great promise for…

The purpose of this book is to introduce the research on readability, defined here as reading ease. The first part of the book covers how people read. A series of national literacy surveys show that the average person in the U.S. and most other countries are adults of limited reading skills. For example, the average adult in the U.S. reads at the…

The principles of readability are in every style manual. Readability formulas are in every writing aid. What is missing is the research and theory on which they stand. This short review of readability research spans 100 years. The first part covers the history of adult literacy studies in the U.S., establishing the stratified nature of the adult…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore whether there is a relationship between the age at which music lessons begin and language reading proficiency as an adult. Such a relationship may indicate that transfer of learning takes place between the processes of learning to read language and learning to read music. One hundred forty-seven…

Kentucky's goal of reaching academic "proficiency" by 2014 illuminated problematic findings in 2002 reading test scores: 44.30% of middle and 71.25% of high school students scored below "proficient." The research question was, "Do teaching practices in schools with high reading achievement scores differ from teaching practices in schools with low…

Twenty-nine percent of students enrolled in Austin Independent School District were English language learners in 2009-2010. The majority of them (62%) continued to make progress in English proficiency, and their state academic test (TAKS) performance continued to improve over the years.

Early in the 20th century, educators began looking for scientific methods for matching texts with readers. Some of the best minds in education dedicated themselves to this task, including Edward L. Thorndike, William S. Gray, Ralph Tyler, Edgar Dale, Irving Lorge, and Jeanne S. Chall. The purpose of this book is to bring students of reading into…

For purposes of the present study, it was hypothesized that field (in)dependence would introduce systematic variance into Iranian EFL learners' overall and task-specific performance on task-based reading comprehension tests. 1743 freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior students all majoring in English at different Iranian universities and colleges…

This report summarizes evaluation results from AISD's Model Reading Intervention Program (MRIP) at grade 4 during the 2001-2002 school year.

This study investigates the effect of phonological awareness instruction on the development of word-reading ability for EFL first-graders in a Jordanian state school. Based on Chard and Dickson's (1999) phonological awareness hierarchy, a phonological awareness training program was developed by the researchers, and used in training the…

The Ministry of National Education in Turkey initiated a new early reading instruction method in 2004. Analytical approach (Whole Language), as defined in the curriculum, was abandoned and phoneme based approach (Phonics) was introduced. This research has a two year longitudinal perspective and aims to collect the opinions of teachers about the…