This action research developed as a response to the researcher's experience with struggling and alliterate readers across all content areas in secondary schools. The researcher witnessed the negative impact of a depressed economy and depressed reading proficiency pervasive among students based on classroom experience and standardized testing. The…

In 1996 President Clinton established the America Reads Challenge Act (1997), which included a commitment that every child will read independently and well by the end of third grade. This initiative was predicated on links between achievement and poverty (Riley, 1996, 2002) and that children reading below grade level in the early grades perform…

An action research project studied the attitudes and achievement of low-achieving fifth-grade students after participating in a 1-year heterogeneously grouped, literature-based reading program. The project explored the changes in student attitudes towards reading, and changes in students' knowledge in comprehension and vocabulary development.…

A study examined how culturally diverse students increased their reading/writing performance through a structured volunteer tutoring program. Two university professors developed volunteer tutoring programs at six elementary schools in southeastern Michigan. Program objectives were to: (1) increase the reading performance of culturally diverse…

One component of the Reading Plan for Michigan is to develop and implement methods of assessing children's progress in acquiring early literacy skills and of communicating their status and progress to other teachers and parents. This document presents an assessment and instructional system, the Michigan Literacy Progress Profile 2001 (MLPP 2001),…