US government mandates to implement intensive phonics instruction in elementary classrooms invoke an alleged scientific superiority of this approach over more meaning-centered models. But curiously absent from this scientific enterprise is a study of the phonics system itself. Advocates of intensive phonics have not demonstrated that the commonly…

In 1990, Cunningham developed a Names Test as a quick and easy screening tool for teachers to obtain information about a student's decoding skills. In 1994, Duffelmeyer, Kruse, Merkley, and Fyfe added 10 names to the original Names Test and developed a comprehensive scoring matrix to increase diagnostic information from the test, based on error…

The research discussed in this report is a continuation of an effort to develop a set of diagnostic subtests in phonics and structure with empirically determined mastery levels. The complete test will assess the word identification skills of elementary school children. Revisions made in the test battery following administration of the Phonics and…

Reviews investigation of word recognition and identification ability of learning disabled and average students. Disabled students' abilities did not differ from those of average students with matched reading level and IQ, but they made substantially more errors than average students matched by chronological age and IQ. (HTH)

The Ekwall Reading Inventory is a set of reading passages ranging in difficulty from preprimer through ninth-grade level and contains instruments for assessing students' knowledge of letters, phonics, basic sight words, vowel rules and syllable principles, and contractions. The reading passages are designed to measure students' oral and silent…

The reading diagnosis tests and observations in this book provide a systematic way of gathering information about a student. The first 10 chapters test the following: (1) general reading level through oral reading of graded paragraphs; (2) silent reading comprehension; (3) phonics skills through oral reading of nonsense words and phoneme grapheme…

This document describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a program aimed at increasing the level of achievement of first-grade students at the Edmund W. Flynn Model Elementary School. The diagnostic and placement procedure developed allowed for student placement in programs aimed at individual strength while providing remediation…