There is a range of reasons why college students may be underprepared to read, but one possibility is that some college students are below a threshold of proficiency in the component skills of reading. The presence of thresholds means that when students fall below that threshold, their proficiency in that component skill of reading is not…

There is a range of reasons why college students may be underprepared to read, but one possibility is that some college students are below a threshold of proficiency in the component skills of reading. The presence of thresholds means that when students fall below that threshold, their proficiency in that component skill of reading is not…

This article examines the goal of kindergarten, along with how the youngest members of a kindergarten cohort may be disadvantaged by an over-emphasis on reading skills. Evidence is examined, showing that kindergartners benefit from learning practical, social, artistic and oral language skills. Effective ways that early elementary school teachers…

While adolescent foundational skills interventions can be critical levers for reading improvement, district leaders, teachers, and researchers must make complex decisions about how to evaluate their effectiveness in context. In this discussion article, we explore three issues and tensions we experienced during a 2-year research-practice…

This study aimed to increase our understanding on the relationship between reading and listening comprehension. Both in comprehension theory and in educational practice, reading and listening comprehension are often seen as interchangeable, overlooking modality-specific aspects of them separately. Three questions were addressed. First, it was…

One avenue for improving reading outcomes is to ensure children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) enter school with the foundational skills needed to learn to read. Our research team developed an early literacy curriculum specifically for DHH children. Teachers use Foundations for Literacy (FFL) in a one-hour literacy block for the school…

Nationwide, students with disabilities struggle to develop foundational skills across content areas (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012, 2013). Researchers and national organizations have suggested that many students' achievement problems stem from failing to develop fluency with basic facts and skills in reading, mathematics, and…

According to interpretations of results from the latest oral reading fluency (ORF) study conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (White et al., 2020), fourth-grade students who score below the basic standard require interventions that focus on word recognition, phonological decoding, and fluency. Before such mandates for…

Background: Educational qualifications and literacy skills are highly related. This is not surprising as it is one aim of educational systems to equip individuals with competencies necessary to take part in society. Because of this relationship educational qualifications are often used as a proxy for "human capital". However, from a…

Incarcerated men and women in state and federal prisons face multiple educational and economic challenges. Disabilities and health concerns of incarcerated adults exceed that of the general population. Despite widespread availability of correctional education programs in prisons, only a small proportion of prisoners complete them. Employing…

Vertical scales are widely used in educational assessment as a basis for considering grade-to-grade changes in student performance. Typically, the underlying construct is assumed to be essentially unidimensional; however, if there is a change in the measured construct across grades, this assumption may be untenable. Developing a multidimensional…

A substantial proportion of participants in public adult education programs struggle with "basic" academic print literacy skills. According to the 2014-2015 National Reporting System (NRS) data, 48.7% of the national adult basic education/adult secondary education (ABE/ ASE) population tested as reading at or below the "Low…

This article presents the author's response to Karen Eppley's "Reading Mastery as Pedagogy of Erasure". Eppley's commentary (2011) on Dr. Stockard's article, "Increasing Reading Skills in Rural Areas: An Analysis of Three Rural School Districts" (Stockard, 2011), uses selected details as points of departure for a critique of…

For the last several days, Janet had been anxious about her upcoming parent-teacher conference with Sam, 18-month-old Abby's father. Sam had recently brought in alphabet flash cards because he wants Abby to learn to read. Janet completely understood Sam's desire to support his daughter's early language skills, but she was not comfortable with the…

This observational study examined kindergarteners' (n=170) exposure to literacy instruction in their classrooms (n=36), child-by-instruction interactions, and behavioral engagement in relation to literacy skills. Time spent in four instructional contexts was coded according to who managed children's attention (teacher-managed, TM or child-managed,…