Looking back on a course they had designed, the authors recognized that the catalyst to success was the commitment to incorporating five course components: (1) substantial instructional minutes; (2) authentic academic reading material; (3) various instructional groupings; (4) instruction on vocabulary; and (5) background knowledge, and modeling of…

Because of its continued commitment to and investment in high-quality early & elementary learning, West Virginia has established itself as a national leader in the area of early learning. This accolade is not uncommon for West Virginia's early learning system, as West Virginia has a history of leading the nation in early learning and with…

This study investigated associations between enrollment in preschool special education and school readiness skills for children with mild to moderate delays. Findings indicated that on average, children who received preschool special education services had lower scores in reading and math in kindergarten than similar children who did not receive…

The amount of oral language exposure a young child receives affects the child's reading-readiness skills. Factors that affect the increase of language and thus affect the reading success of children include oral language ability, learning opportunities, and behaviors that young children experience. Oral language development includes gaining…

The majority of children from lower income families enter elementary school well behind their peers in reading, math, and general knowledge. Poor academic achievement in the early grades is associated with a range of social problems such as failure to complete high school, increased risk of unintended pregnancy, increased criminal activity, and…

West Virginia's longstanding commitment to early learning efforts is evident across early learning programs. The state is one of a very small handful of states in the nation with free, full-day, five-day kindergarten for all children AND voluntary universal pre-k to all four year old children (and three year old children with special needs). West…

Over the last decades the nature and form of what children can choose to read has changed radically, partly as a consequence of rapid technological advances and the increasing dominance of the image. The research questions were: (1) "How do children learn to read and write by computer?"; (2) "How can one support children's learning…

This study examined the use of poetry as a multimodal communicative text to encourage reading engagement in selected African-American learners with mild intellectual disabilities. Framed by critical discourse theory, genre theory, and Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, this investigation presented poetry as an alternative text…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the effects of attending a state-funded 4K program located in a large southern Wisconsin suburban school district. Reading gains were measured as results of the Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum assessment given in the fall and spring of 4K, and then sequentially, kindergarten-reading…

In Wisconsin, increased academic performance has been a general assumption supporting the institutionalization and public funding of early childhood instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between attendance in public four-year-old kindergarten and elementary level reading performance. This study…

Asking questions to promote higher-level thinking is often promoted as a way to challenge students, especially talented readers, to think more deeply about text and share their thinking. Recent research in a variety of educational fields has indicated that follow-up questions may be used to move all students forward in their abilities to…

The aim of present research was to describe the relation of six-year-old children's attention and reading readiness skills (general knowledge, word comprehension, sentences, and matching) with their auditory reasoning and processing skills. This was a quantitative study based on scanning model. Research sampling consisted of 204 kindergarten…

Much of the research on curriculum-based measurement (CBM) in reading has focused on oral reading fluency (ORF). However, ORF is only one of five critical reading skill areas in the wider construct of reading that includes foundational skills such as phonological awareness and phonics. In this research brief, we address the construct of readiness…

Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Birth Cohort are used to analyze the factors that lead to the reading readiness of children who participate in nonparental care the year prior to kindergarten (N = 4,550), with a specific focus on Latino children (N = 800). Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis demonstrates that reading…

Identifying the best predictors of academic performance is crucial for postsecondary institutions seeking students with the greatest promise. We investigated the relative strength of standardized test scores (ACT), high school GPA, and non-cognitive, college readiness skills in predicting college GPA. College freshmen (505) completed the 108-item…