This study examines the impact of a systematic teaching programme of phonological awareness (PA) skills on children's pre-reading skills where English is taught as Second Language in a school in Beirut, Lebanon. Four Kindergarten classes (two experimental and two control) participated in the study. Instruments included intervention programme,…

Because reading is not a natural process like language, young learners must be taught to read. Knowledge about how the reading brain develops has critical implications for understanding which teaching methods to use and helps reconceptualize previous debates. In this excerpt from "Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World",…

This investigation explored the relationship between educator preparation programs and teachers' perceptions of instructional readiness in foundational literacy skills. This study also examined the impact that early childhood, elementary, and specialty endorsement education programs of study, reading methods courses, and clinical field experiences…

West Virginia is a nationally recognized leader for its strong commitment to high-quality early learning education programming. West Virginia is one of a very small handful of states in the nation with free, full-day, five-day kindergarten for all children AND voluntary universal pre-k to all four-year-old children (and three-year-old children…

Because of its continued commitment to and investment in high-quality early & elementary learning, West Virginia has established itself as a national leader in the area of early learning. This accolade is not uncommon for West Virginia's early learning system, as West Virginia has a history of leading the nation in early learning and with…

In Wisconsin, increased academic performance has been a general assumption supporting the institutionalization and public funding of early childhood instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between attendance in public four-year-old kindergarten and elementary level reading performance. This study…

Duncan et al. (2007) presented a new methodology for identifying kindergarten readiness factors and quantifying their importance by determining which of children's developing skills measured around kindergarten entrance would predict later reading and math achievement. The main objectives of this paper are threefold: (a) provide new empirical…

State and local assessment data from 117 students in one school in the California Central Valley were examined to determine how much participation in a kindergarten through second grade multitiered reading intervention model contributed to third grade reading achievement, over and above the demographic factors of ethnicity, socioeconomic status,…

Background: This investigation was sparked by research findings on secondary education showing school segregation to be closely associated with homogeneous grouping practices, such as tracking and between-class ability grouping. Research Design: We conduct secondary analyses of national data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten…

The purpose of this study was to develop a quantitative and qualitative profile to investigate whether there was a significant difference in the reading performance of kindergarten students that did or did not attend prekindergarten by examining scores of the August benchmarks on the Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Using…

Substantial research supports the need for early intervention efforts for students at risk for failure. Despite the empirically documented importance of early, explicit reading intervention for students who enter school without critical prereading skills, many kindergarten programs delay intensive reading instruction until later in the year.…

This study investigated (1) the difference, if any, between the achievement in reading readiness of younger kindergarten children (4 years 9 months to 5 years 1 month upon school entrance) and older children (5 years 5 months to 5 years 8 months at entrance), (2) whether kindergarten positively affects the reading readiness achievement of children…

This study compared actual and recommended practices in reading readiness programs in kindergartens and first grades of New York State public schools as reported by classroom teachers and as advocated by chairmen of departments of early childhood and elementary education in the 54 teacher-training institutions in New York State offering…

THE RESULTS OF 17 STUDIES ON READING READINESS ARE SUMMARIZED AND INTERPRETED. ALL BUT ONE OF THE STUDIES WERE COMPLETED SINCE 1957. READING READINESS IS DEFINED, AND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND CURRENT THEORY ARE DISCUSSED. STUDIES OF FORMAL READING READINESS INSTRUCTION IN KINDERGARTEN ARE DESCRIBED. CONCLUSIONS ABOUT KINDS OF…

The Pre-Reading Skills Battery is a group-administered diagnostic battery measuring skills considered to be prerequisite to beginning reading instruction. Three major areas of skills are included: language, visual perception, and auditory perception. Within each of these three areas several skills are tested through two or three sub-tests. In some…