Argues that the extent of a child's sense of story influences the child's prediction of syntax and comprehension. Suggests ways for teachers to encourage children to develop their sense of story. (RL)

A 2-year study involving 103 kindergarten children tested five predictive models for early reading achievement. Results indicate a predictive model combining letter identification, phonological awareness, and rapid automatized naming was the best predictor of early reading achievement. There was no practical, significant difference between fall…

Examines whether sex differences in reading learning rate occurred when female instructors worked with small groups of elementary school boys and girls on an individualized basis in an intensive summer reading clinic program. Reports that girls outperformed boys on all measures. (RAE)

Investigates the phenomenon of topic shift (sentences initiating a new topic are given additional processing time by skilled readers). Finds adults showed a proportionately greater effect than fifth graders when more difficult expository texts were used but not with easy narratives. Finds that paragraph marking did not influence the processing of…

Until recently there has been no nationally acceptable test for assessing reading for the higher grades (Five and Six) of the elementary schools in Greece. As part of an effort to validate such a test, evidence was gathered from teachers' rating scales. Seventy-two teachers from Fifth and Sixth Grades all over Greece evaluated their 1377 students'…

The results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2001) were published in 2003. In addition to data about the reading achievements of 10-year-olds in 35 countries, PIRLS 2001 also collected questionnaire information from children, their teachers, headteachers and parents. The results showed not just how well students can…

The teaching of reading has come to be regarded as one of the highest priority areas in modern education because schools have been failing to teach reading effectively to large numbers of students who progress to secondary school without having achieved a working competency in this basic skill. Much of the burden of reading instruction has fallen…

Nassaji and Geva (1999) concluded that lower level processes, particularly efficiency in phonological and orthographic processing contributed significantly to individual differences in adult ESL reading. Moreover, they reported that speed of letter naming, while not directly associated with reading comprehension, was related to linguistic…

This report describes a study that examined the question of whether or not a child's chronological age at school entry or gender affects his/her academic achievement. It posits 2 hypotheses: (1) that there is a low or negligible correlation between the chronological age at which a child enters kindergarten and a sample of the child's overall…

A study examined teachers' reactions to the conceptual framework developed and used in designing the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Reading. A total of 312 classroom teachers (of 1000 surveyed) responded to a questionnaire about the "Reading Framework," a document used in developing the 1992 NAEP. Subjects…

A study tested several possible explanations of why the reading literacy levels in Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada) are lower than those in the rest of Canada. Reading literacy was chosen as the focus of analysis for three reasons: (1) the reading score was the most consistent of the three direct measures of literacy; (2) the reading and…

A study examined the reading problems of adults in Newfoundland (Canada) with low reading ability. It explored the genesis of these problems through a retrospective analysis of their lives as school children; and determined the relationship between literacy development and personal background factors, school factors, physiological factors, and…

This report describes the process used by a small, one-building kindergarten-through-grade-six school district in New Jersey to improve the reading scores of students who had fallen below their current grade in reading. Areas of need included improving the reading scores of students in regular education, special education, and…

This technical report covers almost every aspect of the United States component of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's (IEA) International Reading Literacy Study, from the inception of the project to the production of the reports. The report notes that since much has already been learned from studies such…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress' (NAEP) 1992 reading assessment was administered to nationally representative samples of 4th-, 8th- and 12-grade students attending public and private schools, and to state representative public-school samples of 4th graders in 43 jurisdictions. In Colorado, 2,897 fourth-grade students in 122 public…