EFL readers tend to experience a number of challenges while learning, due to a number of factors that affect how these readers achieve their learning goals. Metacognitive strategies, referring to one's deliberate, goal-directed control over cognitive enterprises, are considered crucial for assisting EFL learners to be able to accomplish…

What are crucial determinants of a country's average educational performance? Using data from the OECD PISA 2012 study on 58 countries, we develop a typology of educational regimes based on marketisation in terms of school autonomy and accountability. Following organisational theories, we expect that school autonomy is an ideal condition for…

The current study attempted to investigate the contribution of an intervention program to fostering Arabic academic vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skills among seventh grade Arabic native speaking pupils. For this purpose, 247 pupils from four schools in northern Israel have participated in the study. Arabic literacy units that…

The accession of Eastern European countries to the European Union increased family wealth and the returns to schooling. I analyze the change in student achievement due to the EU accession of Eastern Europe building on a panel of six PISA waves covering more than 1 million students in 32 countries. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I find…

Although several measures are available for monitoring kindergarten reading progress, little research has directly compared them to determine which are superior in predicting year-end reading skills relative to other measures, and how validity may change across the school year as reading skills develop. A sample of 426 kindergarten students who…

To improve reading achievement, teachers must ensure students actively engage in productive and meaningful reading tasks. Students with an established history of reading difficulty--including those with reading disabilities--may, over time, develop behaviors for passive and active avoidance of reading tasks. The current study explored the effects…

The empirical investigation enlisted seventy-six (76) third graders with age ranging from 8-10. Out of the total number of respondents, males and females are equally represented. The study employed a descriptive-quantitative-correlational design. Moreover, the gathering of data was realized through the use of survey and comprehension reading…

The K-3 Reading Improvement Program focuses on the development of early literacy skills in all students, with additional emphasis placed on intervention for "at-risk" students. Resources available to aid these students include interventions and supports for students in grades kindergarten through third grade, standards and assessments…

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is an international comparative study of student performance in reading literacy at the fourth grade. PIRLS 2016 marks the fourth iteration of the study, which has been conducted every 5 years since 2001. New to the PIRLS assessment in 2016, ePIRLS provides a computer-based extension to…

This article explores an approach for test score validation that examines test takers' strategies for taking a reading comprehension test. The authors formulated three working hypotheses about score validity pertaining to three types of test-taking strategy (comprehending meaning, test management, and test-wiseness). These hypotheses were…

As school districts nationwide have moved toward data driven intervention, oral reading fluency measures have become a prevalent means to monitor progress by assessing the degree to which a child is becoming a fast (and therefore fluent) reader. This article reviews results of a survey of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with children…

Less skilled readers' comprehension often suffers because they have an impoverished representation of text in long-term memory; this, in turn, increases the difficulty of gaining access to backgrounded information necessary for maintaining coherence. The results of four experiments demonstrated that providing less skilled readers with additional…

The reliability and validity of a Morphological Awareness (MA) battery and a researcher created Morphological Awareness Assessment Battery (MAAB) were evaluated to determine how each type contributed to passage reading comprehension among 56 fourth and fifth graders with reading difficulties. The MA battery is an assessment battery comprised of…

The Internet has become the primary source for obtaining information at work, at home, and for school. Because Internet reading increasingly is becoming one of the central ways students are acquiring information, in 2016, PIRLS was extended to include ePIRLS--an innovative assessment of online reading. ePIRLS is a computer-based assessment that…

In educational assessments two types of missing responses can be discerned: items can be "not reached" or "skipped". Both types of omissions may be related to the test taker's proficiency, resulting in non-ignorable missingness. This paper proposes to model not reached and skipped items as part of the response process, using…