This study is a follow-up on a previous study of the effects of 2 beginning reading programs implemented in 1st grade. In the previous study, 40 1st-grade students who were matched based on their Concepts About Print Test (Clay, 1979) and Phonological Segmentation Fluency from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS; Good…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Saving Futures, Saving Dollars": Five Percent Increase in Male Graduation Rate Could Lead to Savings of $8…

Children from non-English-speaking homes are doubly disadvantaged when learning English in school. They enter school with less prior knowledge of English sounds, word meanings, and sentence structure, and they get little or no reinforcement of their learning outside of the classroom. This article compares the classroom standard practice of…

A 6-year ex post facto study compared the word study skills, word reading/reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, and total reading achievement of Choctaw Indian first and second grade classes that participated in the Sing, Spell, Read, & Write (SSRW) program and classes that had not participated in the program. Subjects were 84 students in…

A set of 10 attitudinal items from the 1985 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was administered to 131 fifth graders who had taken the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to determine the relationship between reading achievement and attitudes. Complete, appropriate data were available for 114 students. Teachers' responses to selected NAEP…

To determine the effectiveness of the computer assisted instruction/computer management system (CAI/CMS) as an alternative to conventional methods of compensatory reading instruction, a cost benefit study evaluated elementary, middle, and high school reading programs in the Columbus, Ohio, school district. Analysis was based on cost outlay for the…

Intended to enable Catholic educators to evaluate and compare the writing progress of their students to that of the nation as a whole, this report presents writing achievement data of Catholic school students in grades 4, 8, and 11, assessed in 1983-84 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). A summary of the findings of the NAEP…

The results of a three-part study, conducted to present an indepth look at reading comprehension instruction in the middle grades, are described in this report. Four major areas are covered: teacher's verbal reports, program specifications, teaching behavior, and student mastery. The report first describes the research design, or how a profile of…

A three-part study was conducted to present an indepth look at reading comprehension instruction in the middle grades. In the first part of the study, four basal series for grades 4, 5, and 6, were analyzed for clarity of communication, adequacy of skill practice provided, and a number of other comprehension related dimensions. In the second part,…

A study was conducted to determine if a teacher-constructed cloze procedure correlated significantly with two standardized tests of reading achievement, thereby testing G.D. Spache's claim that most teachers are unable to design valid and reliable assessment materials. Subjects were 60 fourth and sixth grade students who were administered the…

In this report, test results on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Tests (GCRT) are presented for first-, fourth-, and eighth-grade Atlanta pupils. A brief report of results on the Georgia Basic Skill Tests (GBST) for tenth graders is also included. Specifically, the GCRT is designed to assess students' performance on reading (including concepts in…

A study investigated whether a visual selective attention deficit with its presumed basis in slow visual processing referred to the same phonological recoding deficit, or whether they were two independent sources of reading disability. Subjects were children aged 7 to 15 referred to a university clinic (the Waterloo Child Assessment…

IN THIS REPORT THE UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS (UFT) ANALYZES SPECIFIC DATA FROM THE CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION'S (CUE) NEGATIVE EVALUATION OF NEW YORK CITY'S MORE EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS (MES) PROGRAM AND CHARGES THAT CUE'S CONCLUSIONS ARE INVALID. THE UFT MAINTAINS THAT SINCE 18 OF THE 21 MES WERE FORMER SPECIAL SERVICE (SS) SCHOOLS, CUE SHOULD HAVE…

An attempt was made to determine differences in reading achievement gains and student attitudes towards school between groups of third grade children enrolled in either modified open or traditional classrooms in the same school. The Metropolitan Achievement Test in Reading was used for pre- and posttest comparisons of achievement, and a…

Reading achievement of students from open plan and traditional elementary classes were compared in three areas; speed and accuracy, vocabulary, and comprehension. The first evaluation (Grade 7) indicated that the mean score of the speed and accuracy scale was significantly lower for "open-area" students than for traditional pupils. Score…