This study examined the effect of small class size intervention on student outcomes using reading achievement scores as measured by the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), a standardized, norm-referenced test, while controlling for independent variables inclusive of students' gender, race, socioeconomic status (SES), and environment. This…

Across the U.S., educators face a common challenge: How can we help all students become strong readers and writers? In the author's state of Tennessee, many educators believe they have a reading crisis. Two-thirds of 3rd graders do not read and write on grade level as measured by the statewide assessment (Tennessee Department of Education, 2019a).…

The Read to be Ready campaign emerged from the startling reality of Tennessee's reading achievement data. Only one-third of Tennessee fourth graders scored proficient in the last administration of National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) in 2015. Equally concerning, students who fell behind in the early years almost never caught up in…

A full year of progress in advancing education reform across America is documented in each of the Foundation for Excellence in Education's Annual Reports. The illustrated pages of the 2014 report, provide data-rich updates on Excellence in Education's work to advance student-centered policies in more than 40 states, all aimed at improving learning…

The process of evaluating and selecting basal readers has long been a primary concern for educators. Educators directly involved with textbook adoptions have expressed several concerns, including: time pressures on evaluators; lack of training for evaluators; concerns related to publishers; and correlations with state or district curriculum.…

Scores for five subjects (Reading, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies in grades 2 through 8) from the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program were analyzed for several hundred Tennessee grade schools. Schools which owned the Accelerated Reader learning information system (a computer program which allows teachers to monitor…

This report presents case studies of the three exemplary projects within the Special Emphasis Project, a federally funded national study of how intensive reading programs might change the patterns of elementary school students who read one or more grades below grade level. An introductory section provides information on the history, organization,…

As part of the language arts curriculum framework developed in accordance with "Rules, Regulations, and Minimum Standards" of the Tennessee State Board of Education, this reading curriculum guide of the Basic Skills First Program is designed to identify the minimum reading skills for fourth grade students. After brief explanations of the…

As part of the language arts curriculum framework developed in accordance with "Rules, Regulations, and Minimum Standards" of the Tennessee State Board of Education, this reading curriculum guide of the Basic Skills First Program is designed to identify the minimum reading skills for fifth grade students. After brief explanations of the…

As part of the language arts curriculum framework developed in accordance with "Rules, Regulations, and Minimum Standards" of the Tennessee State Board of Education, this reading curriculum guide of the Basic Skills First Program is designed to identify the minimum reading skills for sixth grade students. After brief explanations of the…

Judge Thomas Hull's October 1986 decision in the "Mozert et al. versus Hawkins County Public Schools" provoked concern from a number of educators who felt that the plaintiffs, several Fundamentalist parents, who were favored in the decision, were attempting to force their religious principles on non-Fundamentalists. Judge Hull's…