A study implemented and evaluated the Book Buddies model using National Service volunteers as tutors for high-risk first-grade students in a high-poverty urban setting. Using a design with a randomly assigned control group, results show that tutoring sessions produced clear effects. Children who received 40 Book Buddies lessons significantly…

The purpose of the project was to develop an intensive reading remediation program to increase the reading levels of a targeted group of 20 fourth and fifth grade students by two or more grade levels. An afterschool training program was also developed to improve a targeted group of teachers' skills in teaching reading and to increase their basic…

Describes how early literacy practices were extended to accelerate the literacy progress of at-risk third- through sixth-grade students through a summer school model and an intersession model for year-round schools. Concludes that both models produced impressive gains in reading achievement, with the year-round intersession model producing the…

Investigates the effect on reading comprehension when reading shorter and easier narrative text and longer and more difficult texts on the printed page as compared to reading the same narrative texts using interactive CD-ROM software displayed by the computer. Finds that reading from computers increased comprehension when subjects read longer and…

Describes a "Saturday Reading Club" that was implemented in an urban school for early elementary school children for the purpose of promoting literacy. Notes that the literature-based project used trained university volunteers. Suggests that the club had a positive influence on children's interest in books, reading comprehension, and…

A study examined the effectiveness of the Reading Recovery program in the Irving, Texas, Independent School District. Subjects were students discontinued from the Reading Recovery program because they scored at or above the 40th national percentile, selected students from Chapter/Title I programs on campuses that did not implement Reading…

Describes a successful language experience reading program integrated within highly motivating camping and recreational activities for title one children with reading difficulties. (RB)

A study sought to apply the Navy's Academic Remedial Training (ART) program to illiterate adults by concentrating on intensive reading instruction. Administrators from the City of Memphis selected 16 participants based on employee interest and need. They were primarily middle-aged, black males with four years of education who earned between…

The primary purpose for reading is to derive the meaning of an author's message, which has been transmitted through print, as it relates to the reader's personal need to go from a point of lesser to greater information. Within the college reading improvement program, the many purposes surrounding reading should intersect to form the basis for…

Ninety-seven developmentally disabled mentally retarded persons (aged 10 to 48 years) living in an institution, in group homes, or at home were trained in environmental language, speech, and reading skills using a game oriented multisensory approach. The evening tutorial program consisted of 20 sessions over a 6 month period. A pedagogic and task…

Two Emergency School Aid Act (ESSA)-funded compensatory education reading programs served 1900 Minneapolis students in desegregated schools during 1974-75. Both programs generally met their objectives for comprehension gain among disabled readers. Students in the ESAA Intermediate Reading Program achieved a median rate of about 3 grade-score…

Examined impact of 12-week affective education program for second grade students presented to three classrooms; four classrooms serving as control did not receive the intervention. Results indicated there was a significant program impact on academic growth, specifically the Stanford Achievement Test reading scores, although mean scores on…

This quarterly newsletter covers educational issues affecting schools in WestEd's 4-state region (Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah) and nationwide. This Summer 1999 edition contains a lead article entitled "Reading for Understanding: A Modern Urban Success Story," which describes a course in "academic literacy," developed…

A study examined the implementation of the Indiana Early Literacy Intervention Grant Program during the 1997-98 school year, when the program funded a total of 133 projects and served 9,685 students in its first year. The study incorporated an analysis of existing databases, a systematic review of the research literature on reading interventions,…

A study involving three males (age 13) with learning disabilities investigated the effectiveness of using story mapping for teaching elements of the story form. The instructional procedure positively affected the number of story elements included in students' recall of stories when they were explicitly taught to use it in reading. (Author/CR)