Describes the development and testing of an instrument designed to measure two factors--affect and anxiety--associated with reading avoidance. (FL)

This study, using the Visual Pattern Recognition Test for Prereading Skills, found that beginning readers improve in word recognition if they are given training in identifying essential components of letters. (HOD)

Addresses the need to include all available data (physical, environmental, language, cognitive, affective, and educational correlates of reading) to evaluate students' reading strengths and weaknesses. Argues that this holistic approach makes the assessment of reading skills efficient and avoids test replication. (RS)

Determines whether three groups of readers (normally achieving, poor comprehenders, and reading disabled) differed in their ability to cope with reading comprehension task demands. Finds that the groups differed with respect to their performance on specific question-answer types and their standardized reading comprehension scores. Suggests that…

Surveys the status of statewide reading assessment practices in the United States. Finds that the typical state uses an existing national standardized test or its own local standardized version and that only 10 percent of states are on the cutting edge of reading evaluation. Suggests that, at the statewide level, reading assessment has not kept…

Investigates whether the vocabulary of written comprehension questions is an independent factor in determining students' reading comprehension performance. Finds that academic vocabulary in comprehension questions significantly decreased question-answering performance. Computes simple, multiple, and semipartial correlations between vocabulary…

PIRLS 2006 provides countries with the unique opportunity to obtain internationally comparative data about how well their children can read. Countries also will obtain detailed information about home supports for literacy as well as school instruction. For the 35 countries that participated in PIRLS 2001, PIRLS 2006 will provide information on…

A study evaluated the validity of the Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) grade-3 reading assessment from 2 perspectives: its relationship to 21 other measures of reading via factor analyses, and the sensitivity of the IGAP to instruction in 3 schools via multiple regression. Data were collected in a longitudinal study involving 350 students.…

To investigate the causes of variation in cloze-comprehension test correlations, a reanalysis was conducted of the influential J.R. Bormuth study (1962), which reported correlations between nine cloze and nine comprehension tests administered to 50 subjects in grades 4, 5, and 6. Two separate renalayses were completed in the present study, the…

This study demonstrated that 49 teen-age high school tutors, under the guidance and assistance of competent reading consultants, could bring about gains in the reading achievement of 215 elementary school children reading at least one year below their grade level. (CS)

Using a test-retest research design, a study examined the reliability of the Classroom Reading Inventory (CRI) and the Ekwall Reading Inventory (ERI). Independent variables of test administrator to subject, test administrator to test, subject to test, and test order were randomized. Subjects included 31 children aged 7 through 12 years. The four…

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data show that children in grades 4, 8, and 11 whose mothers work outside the home read better than children whose mothers do not work outside the home--but the difference is small. This conclusion represents one segment of the findings of the 1983-84 National Assessment, which focused on reading…

Defining calibration of comprehension as the correlation between subjective assessments of knowledge gained from reading and performance on an objective test, this paper draws from literature, as well as the findings of original experiments, to examine issues related to the subject . The paper first documents the claim that poor calibration is the…

Thirty-two children aged 7 to 12 participated in a study to determine the reliability of the Ekwall Reading Inventory (ERI) and the Classroom Reading Inventory (CRI). The children were randomly assigned to take one of the two inventories, which were administered by four different specially trained teachers. The study used a test-retest design, in…

Three experiments were conducted to determine whether an instructional set for visual imagery would facilitate reading comprehension of elementary school children. In the first experiment, 38 fifth graders randomly assigned to experimental and control groups were given the Durrell-Sullivan Reading Capacity and Achievement tests after the…