Waterford Early Reading Program[TM] is a software-based curriculum for students in Kindergarten through second grade. The curriculum is designed to promote reading, writing, and typing, incorporating literacy skills such as letter mastery, language stories, spelling, basic writing skills, reading and listening development, and comprehension…

"Literacy Express" is a comprehensive preschool curriculum designed for three- to five-year-old children. It is structured around units on oral language, emergent literacy, basic math, science, general knowledge, and socio-emotional development. It can be used in half- or full-day programs with typically developing children and children…

A study examined specific reading competencies after participating in Hmong literacy instruction in an after-school setting in the Thermalito, California School District, grades kindergarten through 4. Control and treatment groups were established to compare the English literacy skills of the Hmong students who participated in 40 hours of primary…

This paper describes a program in which community members (retired citizens, parents, and others) provided tutorial services over a 12-week period to five learning disabled primary grade students in a resource room program. Comparison of pretest and posttest results showed a greater than 20 percent increase in reading scores. Weekly spelling test…

To asertain the long-term results of preservice courses in reading, a followup study was undertaken with 20 preservice teachers who had completed a 36-hour course entitled "Reading in the Secondary School." Students were given a reading attitude inventory at the beginning and at the end of the course and asked to complete the following…

The Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) Pilot Project was implemented at 13 New York City high schools during the 1985-1986 school year. The project involved training English Instructional Services (EIS) teachers in techniques for teaching reading holistically and then assessing the improvement on the DRP reading comprehension test. During the 1986…

The 1981 Basic Skills Summer School Program in Montgomery County, Maryland public schools provided intensive remedial instruction in reading, writing, and mathematics to pupils who scored very low on national standardized achievement tests. An evaluation of the program's effects found that (1) over all, participating students in grades 4-8 scored…

Initiated in the fall of 1965 in an effort to raise the reading and language levels of skill-deficient students in grades two through six, the Hartford, Connecticut, Intensive Reading Instructional Team (IRIT) program has proven its effectiveness, and has been expanded through Title I funding. Each year, three groups of 45 students are selected to…

Three issues related to improving basic skills in this nation are discussed in this paper: the definition of "basic literacy skills" and the number of Americans who are purportedly illiterate, what evidence exists that minorities in the United States really have a more serious problem than others in acquiring basic literacy skills, and…

A descriptive analysis of 38 studies from the early to mid-1970's evaluating the effectiveness of career education (CE) programs focused on student (K-12 grade levels) achievement of competence in the basic academic skills (primarily mathematics, reading, and language arts). The studies reviewed were conducted nationwide using a variety of…

The effectiveness of a model for training word recognition was tested with 60 eeucable mentally retarded children (mean age 10 years). Thirty Ss, randomly assigned to the experimental group, were given 14 weeks of training on the model's seven component skills (such as the ability to construct a word given an initial sound), while the 30 control…

Through a comprehensive review of various afterschool programs across the United States, this resource provides a practical overview of the research and best practices that can be easily adapted and applied in the development of highly effective afterschool programs. chapters focus on: (1) "Why Afterschool Programs?" (benefits, challenges, and…

Examines the history of California's reading program, reviewing its change to a literature-based approach and then back again to a phonetic- or skill-based one. Reviews key factors influencing California policy and speculates about the future of the state's reading program. (TB)

Struggling adolescent readers need interventions that provide them with opportunities to read more and to read better. The authors examine two case studies of interventions at work and propose criteria on which to evaluate intervention programs. Their review of the evidence on these programs for struggling adolescent readers suggests that at least…

A growing body of evidence indicates that the test scores of low-income children drop significantly relative to their higher-income counterparts during the summer months. This study finds that a well-implemented summer learning program can improve reading skills and increase the extent to which parents encourage their children to read during the…