After consideration of difficulties and shortcomings in the field of research in reading retardation, the evidence about specific factors contributing to reading achievement is reviewed. Factors considered include intelligence and patterns of scores on intelligence subscales, processing of verbal and auditory stimuli, and personality…

This longitudinal study compared two predictors of reading performance: behavior rating scales and psychometric tests. Two groups of 888 and 844 middle-class kindergarten children were studied through Grade 3. Classroom and school environment were also considered. (Author/GDC)

To spread the word that reading instruction must be based on research and to improve the preparation of teachers to teach reading, this edition of "Basic Education" emphasizes some of the most significant findings of recent reading research and suggests how these findings should translate into immediate action and policy. The first article, "A…

A multivariate analysis of variance, using three factors obtained from a preschool developmental index (Neale Scales) as the dependent variables, and group membership based on subsequent longitudinal reading performance as the independent variables, resulted in a significant multivariate F for a sample of 204 kindergarten children. (Author/SBH)

Describes a reworking of a Title 1 program in Lake Forest, Delaware schools, to eliminate first grade retention due to substandard level of reading ability. The process included: (1) making reading fun; (2) new reading material; (3) parental participation; (4) scheduled reading time; (5) reading requirements; and (6) teachers' aides in classrooms.…

A total of 125 7-year-old students who were poor readers were assigned to 1 of 4 experimental teaching conditions: reading with phonology, reading alone, phonology alone, or a control. Although the phonology alone group showed the most improvement on phonological tasks, the reading with phonology group made the most progress in reading…

Describes the four aspects of the Reading Recovery program: (1) the teaching of children; (2) the training of teachers; (3) the training of teacher leaders; and (4) implementing the program in an education system and coordinating the long-term prevention strategy. Notes that a critical factor in the program is the training of teachers. (RS)

Students with special needs share the same basic needs for literacy instruction. General-education teachers should maintain primary responsibility for literacy education for all students, while special educators and reading specialists provide support. This paper examines obstacles to quality literacy instruction, offering a school-based case…

This study examines the effectiveness of a one-on-one reading intervention using trained tutors. Participants were 49 first-grade students at risk for reading failure. The three-step tutoring model included repeated reading of familiar text, explicit coaching in decoding and word-solving strategies, and reading new books during each 15-minute…

This article looks closely at a subset of books about literacy in and out of school by analyzing images of children learning and struggling to learn to read in realistic fiction. There are several books in which characters wish to learn to read, worry about being poor readers, and work hard to learn to read. These books raise important questions…

Research has specifically linked dropping out of school to reading disabilities and related problems. Research on reading as a cognitive task has focused on reading as an active process with three questions of concern: (1) How does the learner learn to identify the printed word?; (2) How does he or she discriminate one word from another word?; and…

This handbook contains advice for the teacher in diagnosing dyslexia and developing an individualized program for overcoming severe reading problems. Observable characteristics of dyslexia are listed as an aid to the teacher's diagnosis, but it is emphasized that cooperation between the teacher and a reading specialist is of great importance in…

The question of what secondary school can do to cope with the large number of poor readers, the high relationship between dropouts and reading abilities, the widely varying abilities within the classrooms, and the increasing lack of interest in reading among young people is discussed. A secondary language arts program for nonacademic students that…

The need for experts from related disciplines to aid in learning diagnosis and prognosis is discussed. While support for a multi-causation theory of reading disability has been general for many years, it has not led to action, as reflected in the lack of an interdisciplinary approach to learning disabilities in many schools, reading centers, and…