Children of today are gaining exposure to electronic reading environments at earlier ages and in greater frequencies than prior generations, as evidenced by the ubiquity of modern technologies. Such technologies provide affordances beyond basic text by supporting the screen-based rendering of aural, visual, and gestural elements. This research…

Educators often provide students with disabilities reading accommodations to help them access content during instruction, but research has shown that not all students benefit from those accommodations. Given the importance of content area instruction, there is a need for further research on how to efficiently identify reading accommodations that…

This study addressed the effects of Strategies for Teaching Reading, Information, and Vocabulary Effectively (STRIVE), a distributed professional development (PD) model designed to help teachers implement reading comprehension and vocabulary practices in fourth grade social studies classes. Schools (n = 81 schools, n = 235 teachers, n = 4,757…

For students who show inadequate response to research-based intervention, intensification of intervention using data-based decision making (DBDM) is recommended. There is a paucity of research on upper elementary students related to the efficacy of (a) word reading interventions and (b) DBDM procedures. This randomized controlled trial examined…

Helping English learners and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds read and perform academically as well as their more advantaged peers remains a struggle for many schools seeking equitable outcomes for their students. Research suggests that an increased focus on learning of academic language--the formal language used to read,…

This study examined how differences in listening comprehension and word reading at the beginning of the school year influence changes in reading comprehension for English learners (ELs) with significant reading difficulties compared to non-ELs with significant reading difficulties. The study investigated heterogeneity in response to instruction…

This study examined and quantified the maintenance of reading comprehension effects from a 4th-grade intervention for students with reading difficulties across the summer into the fall of 5th grade. We randomly assigned 4th-grade students with reading comprehension difficulties to a multicomponent reading intervention (Passport) or to typical…

This study examined and quantified the maintenance of reading comprehension effects from a fourth grade intervention for students with reading difficulties across the summer into the fall of fifth grade. Fourth grade students with reading comprehension difficulties were randomly assigned to a multi-component reading intervention (Passport) or to…

Teachers can potentially address reading comprehension deficits in a content area, such as science, by using the students in their classrooms as resources. We examined the effects of a class-wide partner reading intervention with science reading materials on a measure of content comprehension skills. A total of 65 fourth-grade students and 61…

This study evaluated the efficacy of the Word Learning Strategies (WLS) supplementary program to improve elementary students' vocabulary skills and reading comprehension. The study used a multi-site cluster randomized, experimental design, which randomly assigned 92 4th grade classrooms (n=2558 students) from two cohorts to a treatment or control…

This study analyzed the potential transfer effects on reading comprehension skills of two different training programs administered to 9- to 10-year-old children attending fourth grade classes. One training program was based on a working memory updating paradigm (i.e., words, digits, sentence and text updating working memory tasks). The other…

Background: Although various studies on general language performance have investigated determinants of students' reading comprehension (e.g., reading amount), they have paid insufficient attention to how students perceive parental values influence their language-related values and behaviour--and, as a consequence, their performance. This is…

This study explores various measures of the ethnic makeup in a classroom and their relationship with student outcomes. We examine whether measures of ethnic diversity are related to achievement (mathematics, reading) and feeling of belonging with one's peers over and above commonly investigated composition characteristics. Multilevel analyses were…

Major federal education initiatives, including the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, have highlighted the importance of teacher quality in improving student achievement. The federal government has committed significant funding and resources to professional development programs for teachers through Title II of the Act and other initiatives. There…

"Treasures, a basal reading program for students in grades K-6, was developed to address reading comprehension among students in the middle elementary grades. "Treasures" is based on extensive research in vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, and phonics and combines "explicit instruction and ample practice to ensure students'…