This study was conducted in the province of Québec, Canada, among French-speaking Grade 6 students (n = 175) in the context of a school curriculum that does not clearly address text structure and main idea instruction. It aims to understand whether these students can identify informative text structures and main ideas in isolated paragraphs,…

This longitudinal study of 78 Canadian English-speaking students examined the applicability of the stability, cumulative, and compensatory models in reading comprehension development. Archival government-mandated assessments of reading comprehension at Grades 3, 6, and 10, and the Canadian Test of Basic Skills measure of reading comprehension…

TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) is an international assessment of mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades that has been conducted every four years since 1995, with the most recent assessment in 2011. PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) is an international assessment of reading…

Examines the effects of direct instruction in finding the main idea of an expository text, and in monitoring reading comprehension using self-generated questions based on main ideas. Reports that reading comprehension improved with direct instruction in main idea and question generating. (MM)

Evaluates Phil Ritchie's research report (same issue) on the effects of direct instruction in finding the main idea of expository texts and using self-generated questions to monitor text comprehension. Points out that the most successful teachers of comprehension are teaching comprehension skills directly. (MM)

This report describes the development and validation of the Test of Inference Ability in Reading Comprehension: a scaled-answer, multiple-choice test intended for use in Grades 6, 7, and 8. The report discusses the need for and conceptualization of assessment of inference ability; proposes standards and principles of inference appraisal; and…

Part 2 of the Alberta (Canada) Education's "Program of Studies for Elementary Schools 1978" (amended 1981), this bulletin describes the planned design, parts, and scoring of the grade six English language arts achievement test to be written in June 1988, and based on curriculum specifications for an integration of thinking and…

A longitudinal evaluation of language arts and mathematics achievement for grades 5 to 8 in the St. Catharines, Ontario school system over a forty-year span is presented. The comparison is based on three different studies conducted from 1933 to 1938, from 1952 to 1954, and from 1975 to 1977. Secondary contributions--the effects of changes in…