This dissertation investigated the extent to which five dependent variables were included in the first-grade reading curriculum and whether district size played a role in their inclusion. This study's mixed-methods approach incorporated descriptive statistics, histograms, confidence intervals, and chi-squared analyses to assess curriculum patterns…

This study investigated the pedagogical strategies implemented by preschool teachers to scaffold social and emotional learning (SEL) in socioeconomically disadvantaged children (ages 3-4) during the 2020-2021 school year amidst COVID-19 in the United States. The participants consisted of eight teachers (representing four teaching teams of one lead…

Balanced literacy has been proposed as a compromise or middle ground between philosophical approaches to reading instruction that stress teaching of word recognition and those that stress construction of meaning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the READ 180 balanced literacy supplementary instruction program on…

This article features a school district in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, that has created a full-day preschool program that helps prepare all children socially and academically for school. For students ages 3 and 4 in Perth Amboy, the two ideas--learning and fun--are one and the same. Through the district's full-day preschool program, teachers…

As educational reform looks at students achieving national standards in reading, much of the educational research that has been conducted has been on students in general education settings. Most research conducted on special education students typically does not focus on students classified with autism, and what research is done on these students…

Newspapers are an effective educational and motivational tool in developmental reading classes. However, many students are unfamiliar with newspapers and read them infrequently. In order to foster newspaper reading and familiarize the college freshmen enrolled in their developmental reading classes with newspapers, the writers of this article…

The purpose of the study was to examine short- and long-term effects of two instructional approaches designed to improve the reading fluency of second-grade children: Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (or FORI; Stahl & Heubach, 2005) and a wide reading approach (Kuhn et al., 2006). By the end of second grade, children in the wide reading…

THE IMPROVEMENT OF INSTRUCTION IN READING FOR EVERY CHILD IN THE ENGLEWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM WAS THE GOAL. TEACHERS OF INTERMEDIATE AS WELL AS PRIMARY LEVEL PUPILS WERE CONFRONTED WITH SEVERAL QUESTIONS--(1) HOW MANY OPPORTUNITIES ARE PROVIDED FOR EACH PUPIL TO EXPRESS HIS IDEAS IN A DIGNIFIED FRAMEWORK TO ONE OR TWO OF HIS PEERS, TO HIS CLASS,…

The Study reported here tested an application of the Linear Programming Model at the Reading Clinic of Drew University. Results, while not conclusive, indicate that this approach yields greater gains in speed scores than a traditional approach for this population. (Author)

Taking a position that is unusual these days, New Jersey officials are promoting research that says bilingual education methods have an edge over English-only methods in teaching English-language learners to read. This article talks about the importance of bilingual education or a blended approach in the implementation of Reading First Program in…

Students derive more benefits from attending developmental reading courses that are an integral part of the academic curricula (Maxwell, 1997). Colleges that pair their developmental reading courses with content courses achieve the objective of integrating the developmental courses into the academic curricula. This article describes the model and…

A COMPARISON OF THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET AND THE TRADITIONAL ALPHABET IN FIRST-GRADE READING WAS CONDUCTED. SAMPLES WERE SELECTED FROM SEVEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS THAT WERE REPRESENTATIVE OF DIFFERING SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS. THE PUPILS WERE PAIRED INTO MATCHED GROUPS. AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP WAS TAUGHT READING BY THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET (ITA)…

A READING PROGRAM WAS STUDIED AND TESTED FOR MENTALLY RETARDED ADOLESCENTS WHO READ SIGNIFICANTLY BELOW EXPECTANCY. THIS REPORT REFLECTS AN ORIGINAL ATTEMPT TO DEVELOP AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM ONLY FOR THOSE EDUCABLES WHO HAVE NOT LEARNED TO READ. THIS PLAN WAS DISCONTINUED WHEN PRELIMINARY SCREENING REVEALED ONLY A FEW NONREADERS AMONG THE…

A study was conducted to determine the current trends in reading materials and methods used to teach first grade students to read in the Northern Valley Region of Bergen County, New Jersey. Twenty-one first grade teachers responded to a survey which consisted of open-ended questions asking about goals and incentives, multiple choice questions on…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: a mature reader's use of consciously employed strategies to facilitate comprehension; contextual and acontextual approaches to teaching vocabulary to adult students; methods for teaching…