A research project was designed to determine whether eleventh and twelfth grade students of carpentry possess the reading skills necessary to comprehend instructional materials used in the field and classroom. A sample population of ninety-two students from twenty-seven school districts was selected for testing from three facilities. Three hundred…

For decades there have been attempts to develop tests that are fair to people from different backgrounds. The Fundamental Achievement Series (FAS) is a recent attempt to develop a test that is fair to those considered disadvantaged. In addition to the traditional kinds of items, the FAS incorporates relevant items, tapping verbal and numerical…

A total of 168 fourth and sixth grade students participated in a study to examine two aspects of children's ability to apply structure while reading. The first part of the study investigated the amount of detail that must be provided in order for students to apply successfully a desired perspective (schema). Students were identified as either good…

This book contains papers presented at the Seventh Interdisciplinary Conference on Piagetian Theory and the Helping Professions. More than 40 papers are included. Areas explored in the papers include: the impact of Piagetian theory on educational policy and aspects of language acquisition and cognitive development in early childhood; theoretical…

A group of junior high school teachers devised a literature program to meet the needs of the individual learner. They selected themes of interest to students in grades 6-8 and then prepared a list of books of varying degrees of reading difficulty which related to these themes. The student could, therefore, read a book commensurate with his ability…

Sixty-five grade 5-6 children were tested on a verbal recall task involving material of varying semantic and syntactic content. There was no difference between best and poorest readers in their performance on random lists of words, but there were clear differences on meaningful sentences and on syntactically well-formed but semantically anomalous…

This paper reports on a pilot study conducted to determine the possible use of the cloze procedure as a substitute measure of achievement in a second-year Spanish culture and civilization class. Twenty students enrolled in a third-semester Spanish class at the University of Colorado were simultaneously given multiple choice tests and cloze tests…

This newsletter contains five articles. The first, "Discourse Structure in Reading," by Ron Shook, suggests that reading materials for the beginning ESL (English as a second language) reader often have three defects: (1) profusion of detail as question fodder; (2) an oversimplified syntax; and (3) an artificial construction that violates…

This evaluation focuses on a comprehensive arts and reading enrichment program for socially and economically deprived inner city adolescents who are performing two years below grade level in reading and/or mathematics. One hundred children participated in this six month program considered to be strongly oriented toward reading improvement. A…

This study explores the hypothesis that the auditory discrimination abilities of disadvantaged Negro children can be improved significantly through an appropriate auditory perception training program. (AG)

The objective of the Gulfport Summer School project was to improve the teaching techniques in the English program so that unmotivated and underachieving students could experience some success. Students were grouped in English classes according to their spelling and language scores on the Stanford Achievement Test, Form X, in classes of from 10 to…

The present research was conducted to determine the relative importance of a variety of background variables and school effects on curriculum assignment in public high schools. The emphasis was on the sociological processes of selection and differentiation within schools, and the role of education in facilitating or blocking social mobility. A…

In order to improve self-concepts, inculcate pride of heritage, and improve use of English by building larger speaking and reading vocabularies in Sioux Indian children, 2 sets of simple books were developed. The 1st set of books, the "Read Aloud Stories," contains 10 illustrated books intended to be read to preschool and early…

A study to determine the impact of adult basic education programs on the upward mobility of disadvantaged workers is presented. The paper industry was chosen for case analysis because of the nature of the upgrading problems, the vast adjustments required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the fact that these ABE programs have been operational…

This report analyzes a test in Hebrew phonetic reading administered to students of the junior high school at Congregation Beth Yeshurun in April and May 1975. There was a progressive improvement in reading rate in each grade: Junior High 1 students averaged 38.7 words per minute; Junior High 2 students averaged 47.3 words per minute; and Junior…