The third in a series of studies to assess the reading achievement of Indiana students, a study compared the reading achievement of sixth and tenth graders in 1944-45, 1976, and 1986. The same edition of the Iowa Silent Reading Test (ISRT) was administered to sixth- and tenth-graders in 1944-45, 1976, and 1986. The 1944-45 sample consisted of 25%…

After taking a standardized reading achievement test, student reading attitudes were most positive when students had previously been counseled on the purpose and nature of the testing and when their scores were interpreted to them. (JT)

This pamphlet describes the new Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) Essential Skills Reading Test which was given to every fourth, seventh, and tenth grader in Michigan in 1989. The questions addressed in the pamphlet include: (1) Why is a new MEAP reading test needed? (2) How has the teaching of reading changed? (3) How is the new MEAP…

Reading comprehension tests usually contain reading passages followed by multiple choice questions about the passages; but one potential weakness of this format is that the questions may be "passage independent," answerable without necessarily reading the passage first. When examining this phenomenon by assessing a particular test, the…

The primary goal of the Wisconsin Reading Task Force is the initiation and implementation of an immediate and ongoing program of statewide assessment of reading performance and reading instruction. The assessment plan looks at students in terms of two questions: How well is the student achieving in reading in comparison with other students in his…

Looks at cloze scores for students at two different schooling stages--grade 5 and grade 10--on materials at their own grade level. Concludes that the cloze score of approximately 40 percent currently used to judge reading ability at all grade levels is not stringent enough for higher grade levels. (FL)

The objectives of this investigation were to study the effects of instruction in the development of qualitative vocabulary on overt, latent, and written qualitative vocabulary performance of urban students of lower socioeconomic background, and to study the effects of such instruction on pupil performance in reading comprehension. Data used to…

Indicates that a broad age range of students can use some purpose questions as cues to activate background knowledge. Suggest topic familiarity, amount of information presented, and the presence of genre clues as text features affecting schema activation. (NKA)

A criterion-referenced assessment of reading literacy conducted in the fall of 1971 in grades 4, 7, 10, and 12 of the Madison Public Schools is described. The study was designed to answer the question: Can Wisconsin students read (gain information from) the written materials they encounter in daily living? The procedures for identifying the…