The Austin Independent School District (AISD) adopted a new and more specific policy about elementary student retention in the 1981-82 school year. Students will be at least 1 year behind in their reading levels at grades 1 through 6 and/or 1 year behind in mathematics competencies at grades 4 through 6 to be considered for retention. Within the…

An exploratory study was carried out in four Los Angeles Title I elementary schools to determine what accounted for the comparatively high reading scores made by these schools' students on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills; determine whether the schools were engaged in demonstrably effective educational practices that other Title I and…

The logic of using a gain score approach versus longitudinal causal models is studied in this secondary analysis of a complex data base. The gain score model used by the Federal Reserve Bank and the School District of Philadelphia in their "What Works in Reading?" study is successively refined using the LISREL structural equation…

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…

Systematic classroom observation instruments were used to study the relationship between observed classroom behaviors--specifically student coping style and teacher control--and student growth in reading. Classroom behaviors were recorded in the fall and the following spring with the use of the Coping Analysis Schedule for Educational Settings for…

Questionnaires were sent to principals and teachers of second and sixth grade children who were part of an Educational Testing Service (ETS) study of compensatory reading programs; the data were combined and analyzed with the original ETS data to determine what effects instructional characteristics had on reading achievement. Within the…

An evaluation system for use with Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I programs has been developed by RMC Research Corporation of Mountain View, California under contract with USOE. The system presently addresses cognitive achievement impact using three statistical designs, each of which may be implemented using either norm…

As part of the evaluation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I Migrant Program, this study investigated whether teacher judgment of oral language proficiency could be used as a covariate in analyzing the reading test scores of migrant children, so that their possible lack of English proficiency could be taken into account…

To draw the attention of teachers to the many kinds of bias that can be found in print, the 10 chapters of this monograph review a number of studies of ways in which biased texts may affect children's attainments as well as their attitudes. The chapters that comprise Parts One and Two center on the more specific issues that relate to the influence…

This New York City Umbrella Program for reading enrichment was implemented in the context of the study of the marine environment. It combined language arts and science study as applied to the study of this environment. One hundred eighty-five pupils from seven fifth grade classes in four schools participated in the program. Classes of students…

The purpose of the program described in this report was to improve reading and other basic skills of third- and sixth-grade children by providing a program in which sixth-grade children tutored third-grade children. Three classrooms of third-grade children and three classrooms of sixth-grade children were involved in this endeavor over a…

This document reports the results for the second year assessment (reading and literature) by theme. The reading themes represent both a variety of reading materials and the variety of behaviors these materials require. The themes were developed by members of the National Assessment staff and reading specialists to cluster the reading exercises…

This report provides a description and evaluation of two school programs in New York City. The programs are English as a Second language at P.S. 152, and the Early Identification Program at P.S. 139. Both were planned with the participation of the principal, the parents, and the school district staff. The first program was designed to supplement…

Introduction of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) into all English schools means that even teachers in small schools with mixed-age classes undertake a large amount of whole-class literacy teaching. The NLS promotes the use of specific teaching strategies during a carefully structured hour-long literacy session. Also, the framework of…

Twenty-four first-graders who were taught reading skills using the "Language Basics: Elementary" program, which incorporates the Orton-Gillingham-based Alphabetic Phonics Method, made statistically significant gains in phonological awareness, decoding, and reading comprehension. Thirty-two controls taught with the Houghton-Mifflin Basal…