This document indicates levels of understanding and ability that all students are expected to achieve as competent readers and writers. It assists Kansas teachers in planning local curricula and assessments for reading, writing, and literature and serves as the basis for the development of state assessments in reading and writing. It presents…

The Moss Point, Mississippi, school district uses a semantic mapping teaching approach called "Writing to Learn" that visually and graphically displays ideas and concepts. Students use computers to work on writing projects, and their achievement scores in the state's reading and writing examinations have increased remarkably. Outlines…

Describes a ghost story writing contest developed by The St. Joseph County Public Library (South Bend, IN) and created to encourage students in grades three to eight to practice writing and to recognize talented writers. Sidebars present a contest timetable and a list of judging criteria for librarians interested in starting writing contests. (JMV)

Grade-level and achievement-level differences were studied in control-related beliefs and relations between students' beliefs and their reading and writing achievement for 364 students in grades 4, 7, and 10. Results suggest that beliefs characteristic of particular achievement levels are not simply reflections of age or grade level. (SLD)

Discusses the IEA Written Composition Study in relation to other IEA studies, national cultural patterns, and research on writing in general. Describes research design problems, development of representative writing tasks, and a scoring scheme based on a system of writing competencies and preferences and their elements. Summarizes preliminary…

Investigates primary classrooms where teachers implemented recommended literacy practices such as: (1) frequently using children's literature; (2) integrating reading and writing; and (3) teaching skills in context. Finds students developed reading and writing skills at higher levels than students in classrooms where teachers used other practices.…

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) "Special Education at a Glance," which includes a copy of the "Guide to Planning and Assessing School-Based Special Education Programs," provides in a single document, information about the special education population at each Montgomery County (Maryland) public school, including…

Data on the writing achievement of 11th-grade students in 1990 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) may help answer the question of who is right: employers and educators who say students are poorly prepared in writing, or parents and students, who are more positive about the results of the writing preparation students receive…

Using Jeanne Chall's widely applied model of reading development, this book examines the strengths and weaknesses in the reading, writing, and language development of children from low-income families to help identify the onset of their difficulties. The book shows how, in the transition from learning the medium to understanding the message, the…

A study examined national examinations in Britain and their effects on what and how students learn. A national questionnaire was completed by 695 teachers across grade levels and 702 of their students at the secondary level in both the United States and Great Britain. Observations were conducted in eight English/language arts classrooms in the two…

This book presents essays by researchers, practitioners, and policy makers who study the impact of classroom portfolios in the assessment of writing achievement by elementary and middle-grade students. Essays in the book report on a national survey of exemplary projects and presents contributions to a Portfolio Conference held at Stanford…

Previous research has examined either the effects of strategy instruction or the effects of literature-based instruction on children's literacy learning. Much less is known, however, about the combination of teacher-led strategy instruction within a literature-based framework. A qualitative case study explored what diverse second-grade students…

A study investigated the effectiveness of the Success for All (SFA) program developed at Johns Hopkins University. The program emphasizes prevention of failure, personal tutoring, family-school program, and regular evaluation of student progress. In 1996, the program involved schools in northern Israel--Arabic and Jewish, religious and secular.…

A multi-year study examined whether elementary school students can engage in historical thinking in a meaningful way, and what kind of writing activities best serve this purpose. Subjects were 17 students of varying language proficiency levels selected as the focus of research from the entire class of 31 primarily Hispanic and African-American…

As part of the mandate of the Alberta Government's Student Evaluation Branch to monitor changes in student achievement, the Humanities Diploma Examinations Unit compared the written work from 1984 and the 1990 English 30, Social Studies 30, and English 33 Canadian provincial diploma examinations. Full-length essays written by over 30,000 students…