Background: South African learners have performed consistently poorly in reading assessments. This paper addresses two key components in improving reading literacy: vocabulary development and teacher knowledge and skills required for quality vocabulary instruction. Aim: This small-scale exploratory study reports on the English vocabulary teaching…

This article presents findings from two research projects concerning the educational achievement and well-being of Hispanic children. The first set of findings is from the first-ever study to calculate high school graduation rates for children with different levels of reading skill in third grade, by race-ethnicity and poverty experience. This…

Nationally, Hispanic achievement lags behind non-Hispanic peers in reading proficiency scores. The gap in achievement persists through subsequent grade levels for Black, Hispanic, and poor students of all races. Current school environments present evidence of dissimilar levels of minority and poverty in schools. Identifiable differences in…

One of the key tasks of schooling is to ensure that children become confident readers and writers, able to access the curriculum and to be prepared for the myriad of demands on their literacy skills in adult life. The aim of Every Child a Reader (ECAR) is to target those with reading difficulties (mostly living in poverty) and make sure that they…

Reading Recovery is part of the Every Child a Reader strategy to enable children to make a good start in reading. Reading Recovery is well known to have impressive effects in the shorter term, but less is known about its long-term effectiveness. The present study followed up at the end of Year 4: 120 comparison children, 73 children who had…