This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1)learning literacy skills in a remedial reading classroom; (2) the development of an observation instrument designed to classify specific nonverbal communication techniques used by conductors of musical ensembles; (3) reading comprehension instruction in microcomputer reading programs; (4) the perceived reading skill needs of community college students as determined by content area faculty; (5) the validity and reliability of the preschool student's bookhandling knowledge task; (6) the relationship between selected learner variables and instruction by student teachers and reading achievement on the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills; (7) measuring the acquisition of reading skills in the first grade; (8) assessment of attitudes that educators, students, and parents have toward certain potentially censorable topics found in adolescent literature; (9) a comparison of sixth grade Thai and American students on two forms of the cloze procedure; (10) English teacher concerns about minimal competency testing graduation requirements; and (11) the effects of computer mediated text and reader study behavior on measures of reading comprehension. (FL)