First Steps is a program instituted by the Western Australia Ministry of Education to improve the literacy and numeracy of primary school students, particularly those at risk of academic failure. First Steps is organized around reading, writing, spelling, and oral language; children's skills are organized along developmental continua. This study,…

The relationships among attributional beliefs, self-perception of competence, knowledge, and reported use of learning and reading strategies were investigated with 104 fifth graders, 133 seventh graders, and 101 ninth graders with and without learning difficulties. Mediating effects of strategic learning and implications for instruction are…

This study of 63 students (in grades 2-8) with mild to moderate disabilities found that students in classrooms using curriculum-based measurement (CBM) achieved better than controls on reading measures. The study also found that students of teachers who received CBM expert system instructional consultation achieved better than others on written…

This study explores the importance of competence in boys' literate lives. Participants were 49 middle and high school boys from very different backgrounds, ethnicities, social classes, and levels of academic achievement. They came from an elite, private all boys' school; a large suburban high school; a large urban school; and a small rural school.…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects of a six-months school entrance age difference on reading, mathematics, and language achievement in primary school children; (2) relationships…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 25 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: learning outcomes produced by single- and multi-grade primary classrooms; the effect of sex-role stereotyped picture books on children's behavior; word recognition…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 47 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: a programed tutoring project in which older students tutored first grade students; oral reading miscues made by children in high, medium, and low reading groups;…

Twenty-seven summaries of first-grade reading studies sponsored by the United States Office of Education are included. The studies, done in the 1964-65 school year, were made in different localities, and each was concerned with a different problem. More than one-half of the directors were full-time college professors; a few were senior authors of…

Pre-college remedial courses in reading and writing at Bronx Community College are described. Teachers with experience in high school remedial reading and composition and college composition taught a combined remedial reading-composition course and a control remedial composition course, so that reading improvement could be tested for both classes.…

A study to compare the effects of reading achievement of informal and formal British infant schools is discussed. The informal school, for children from 5-8 years old, utilizes one or more of the following: integrated day, family or vertical grouping, open planning, and team teaching. The formal schools follow a prescribed curriculum and group…

This issue brief, based on a meeting of a group of distinguished researchers, educators, and policymakers convened by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) explores lessons from research and practice about the role of an intentional curriculum and professional development and supports for teachers in closing the achievement gap for…

Recent research on vocabulary development is reviewed, highlighting issues related to diverse learners. The review included studies of students who are low performers; learning or reading disabled; remedial readers; high achievers; and students who are culturally disadvantaged, language delayed, and linguistically diverse. Areas of convergence in…

The effects of Chapter 1 (Education Consolidation and Improvement Act) reading pull-out programs on the reading achievement of participating students was studied for 30 fifth- and sixth-grade students from a Chicago (Illinois) elementary school serving a low socioeconomic neighborhood with a minority enrollment of 99 percent. Fifteen students had…

A substantial body of reading research indicates that poor readers would become much more successful if teachers pretended that they were actually good readers. First, research suggests that teachers should provide poor readers with more silent and less oral reading time, thereby furnishing them with more reading experience that emphasizes meaning…

To examine how classroom conditions such as students' mean aptitude, materials used, and instructional time influence the amount of reading material covered, 12 first grade classrooms were each observed for 12 days over a 36-week period. Students' reading readiness and word recognition skills were tested prior to observation while group mean…