This study addressed the issue of low reading proficiency in Kentucky's students with disabilities, potentially exacerbated by post-third-grade curriculum changes. This quasi-experimental ex post facto comparative study aims to determine differences in the grade four reading achievement gap in students with disabilities compared to students…

In May 2016, an invitational symposium on the Reading for Understanding (RfU) initiative was held in Alexandria, Virginia. Co-hosted by ETS and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the symposium brought together some 160 state and local education leaders to examine the results of the Reading for Understanding Initiative. The goal of…

This report summarizes findings and outcomes from the revised Dyslexia Program at Overton Elementary School during the 2018-2019 school year and provides recommendations for future literacy intervention programs in AISD.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the major research findings associated with the reading/literacy development of students who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) in inclusive education classrooms. The conditions for developing effective literacy skills are also described. A professional review approach was utilized, and relevant…

Third grade is a critical checkpoint in a child's educational journey. By the end of third grade, children need literacy skills that prepare them for increasing curriculum demands in fourth grade and beyond. Students who are not reading on grade level by this point are significantly more likely to drop out of high school or fail to graduate on…

A literacy clinic is an ideal setting where research and exploration often lead to breakthroughs in reading remediation; that information can then be transferred to classroom instruction (Morris, 2003). Although it is clear that literacy clinics should be structured around what works for their student populations, there remains ambiguity…

How does literacy develop in children's early years, and what programs or practices promote adequate literacy for all children? These are the questions Catherine Snow and Timothy Matthews tackle in this article. Fundamental literacy skills can be grouped into two categories, Snow and Matthews write. The first category is "constrained"…

This study examined the changing role and longitudinal predictive validity of curriculum-embedded progress-monitoring measures (CEMs ) for kindergarten students receiving Tier 2 intervention and identified as at risk of developing reading difficulties. Multiple measures were examined to determine whether they could predict comprehensive latent…

This report summarises Year 6 pupils' attainment in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) survey of 2016 in Northern Ireland and explores the context of that attainment. PIRLS is an international comparison study of reading at ages 9-10. PIRLS has a five-yearly cycle. Northern Ireland took part in PIRLS for the second time…

This summary accompanies the national report for Northern Ireland (Sizmur et al., 2017). It outlines the attainment of Year 6 pupils in Northern Ireland in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016 survey and explores the context of that attainment. PIRLS is a study of reading at ages 9-10 and has a five-yearly cycle.…

Surveying 15 states and 39,837 students, this study examined the extent to which students who took an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards in the 2010--2011 school year had access to regular education settings and the extent to which that access correlated with expressive communication, use of an augmentative or…

Despite the emerging evidence base on response to intervention, there is limited research regarding how to effectively use progress-monitoring data to adjust instruction for students in Tier 2 intervention. In this study, we analyzed extant data from a series of randomized experimental studies of a kindergarten supplemental reading intervention to…

Why does the United States lag behind so many other countries on international education assessments? The traditional view targets school-based explanations--U.S. schools attract poorer teachers and lack the proper incentives. But the U.S. educational system may also serve children with comparatively greater academic challenges as a result of…

Academic learning time (ALT) has long had the theoretical underpinnings sufficient to claim a causal relationship with academic achievement, but to this point empirical evidence has been lacking. This dearth of evidence has existed primarily due to difficulties associated with operationalizing ALT in traditional educational settings. Recent…

Policy changes at the federal and state level are endeavoring to improve student achievement at schools serving children from lower-SES homes. One important strategy is the focus on using evidence-based core reading curricula to provide a consistent framework for instruction across schools. However, rarely have these curricula undergone rigorous…