Since the inception of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002, reading teachers, administrators, and school districts have been concerned with identifying the best practices to narrow the academic achievement gap between struggling students, who read below their academic grade level and are at-risk for not passing their current grade level, and…

The purpose of this dissertation is to characterize and analyze the specific implementation decisions made by teachers in Dominican primary schools. A new curriculum was developed in 1995 as part of a Ten-Year Plan to reform the educational system. Analyzing what teachers do and the factors that shape their instruction is relevant for improving…

This study attempted to provide a systematic framework for phonics instruction for beginning readers in literature-based classrooms based on relative frequency of phoneme-grapheme occurrences found in three distinct corpora. The first corpus contained an academic word list. The second corpus contained the running text from 363 books identified as…

This study examined the discourse of preservice teacher candidates in order to better identify those practices and experiences by which they shape their identity and conceptualize their role in teaching. The study's purpose was to find out (a) how secondary preservice teacher candidates conceptualize the practice of their teaching, (b) what…

The purpose of this study was to explore any differences in teachers' perceptions and attitudes toward student achievement of learning when using two different state-mandated commercial reading programs. The study identified the nature of the relationship and implications between teachers' perceptions and attitudes toward student learning when…

Recent evidence suggests that invented spelling is valuable in predicting reading development, revealing which prereading skills children possess and still need to learn, and promoting development of early literacy skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of letter-sound knowledge, phoneme awareness, and word reading…

This study uses miscue analysis to provide a window of insight on the literacy capabilities of children with autistic disorder. The participants are 9 children with autistic disorder functioning in the middle of the autism spectrum (not Asperger's Syndrome) and includes miscue analysis of 17 readings. The study sets out to identify and/or reveal…

This investigation explored relationships between format of text (electronic or print-based) and reading comprehension of adolescent readers. Also in question were potential influences on comprehension from related measures including academic placement of participants, gender, prior knowledge of the content, and overall reading ability. Influences…

Using a quasi-experimental pretest/post test design, this study examined the effects of two summarization strategies on the reading comprehension and summary writing of fourth- and fifth- grade students in an urban, Title 1 school. The Strategies, "G"enerating "I"nteractions between "S"chemata and "T"ext (GIST) and Rule-based, were taught using…

The purpose of this correlational study was twofold: to examine the relationship of students' reading performance on six different diagnostic reading assessments and the third grade Ohio Reading Achievement Test; and to assist educators in choosing the diagnostic assessments that best identify students at risk of failing the third grade Ohio…

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine if the knowledge of literacy development and reading instruction practices an elementary school principal possesses impacts the level of reading achievement of his/her students. Principals' scores on an assessment of knowledge of literacy development and instruction were compared to students'…

This study focuses on the development of paraeducators as a resource for student learning. More specifically, the study involved a post hoc analysis of an action research project aimed at improving the instructional skill of paraeducators in the content area of reading. The conceptual framework for the study was grounded in the literature of…

ASD knows no boundaries in terms of racial, ethnic, economic, educational or social background; it can affect any family and any child (Autism Society of America, 2009). As the population struggles to understand the disorder, parents and teachers find themselves on a quest to meet the needs of children diagnosed with autism, both in the home and…

It has been well established in the literature that the acquisition of literacy presents a significant challenge for most students who are deaf or hard of hearing (Allen, 1986; Babbini & Quigley, 1970; Holt, 1993; Lane & Baker, 1974; Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002; Moog & Geers, 1985; Traxler, 2000; Trybus & Karchmer, 1977). Vocabulary, which…

The purposes of this study were to identify the attitudes and beliefs content teachers have concerning teaching reading in the content area to below level readers and to identify specific instructional strategies that are used to teach students who are below grade level the content area material. Twelve participants were selected, using maximum…