<p> This mixed method study examines teachers' and administrators' perceptions of what contributes to the growth of the students in the educational disabilities subgroup in reading within the context of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) mandated by NCLB in New Hampshire until June, 2013. This study researches effective reading instruction for students identified with reading disabilities, and the factors within a school that support it, that help that group become proficient in reading. Using the New England Common Assessment Program and AYP data as criteria, four schools that had made AYP in 2011 and 2012 were selected. Participants were 68 special education and regular education teachers and five administrators. Data were collected by 15 initial interviews with special educators, administrators, and reading specialists. Fifty-three classroom teachers were then surveyed. QSR NVivo analyzed qualitative data while quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS software. Analysis yielded six key factors: highly trained teachers, high expectations of success, what the district provides both in resources and organization, collaboration/communication, what to do when students don't make progress, and delivery of instruction. The study yielded a list of the most used direct instruction programs, while small group instruction in the classroom or resource room was the preferred method of instructional delivery. A framework for decision-making was suggested, which included core curriculum, programs, time x intensity, progress monitoring, and tuning-up (CPTPT).</p><p> Key Words: reading instruction, students with disabilities, elementary education, Response to Intervention.</p>

<p> This teacher research study examined the pedagogical practices and conditions for learning that supported the literacy learning of the children in my kindergarten classroom during the 2006-2007 school year. An additional focus was to determine the meaning-making strategies employed by effective young beginning readers in this classroom. </p><p> The participants were 21 children, 12 girls and nine boys, who were students in my kindergarten. They were also representative of the primarily Caucasian population within a school district on eastern Long Island that included a small percentage (less than 5%) of other ethnic groups. </p><p> Data collection included ethnographic observations (kidwatching), along with still and video, digital photography. These data were examined within the literacy events in the classroom that included reading to children, reading with children, and children reading by themselves or to others. Portions of the video collection included the children reading the morning message with me. Video of children reading to me was also transcribed and examined using miscue analysis to determine the meaning-making strategies used by five effective young beginning readers. </p><p> Findings indicate that the tenants of whole language, along with Cambourne's (1988) conditions for learning, were in place and supported the pedagogical practice during the literacy events studied. Miscue analysis of the readings done by the children indicated that the children avoided any reliance on the surface features of text (phonics) and employed complex, meaning-making miscues to produce a reader's text that also maintained a high syntactic and semantic relationship with the author's text. </p><p> The implications are that similar literacy development could be realize for children within other classrooms where this pedagogy and conditions for learning are in place.</p>

<p> Students who enter higher education requiring reading remediation have poor institutional persistence. This study examined the course success and first-year institutional persistence of six women enrolled in a developmental reading course at a regional campus of a state university. Data sets were comprised of classroom observation, review of academic records, and interviews with students and their instructor. </p><p> </p>

<p> Early literacy and reading skills are both important predictors of an individual's future success in school and employment settings (Moats, 1999). Moreover, poor reading performance in elementary school has been associated with future conduct problems and juvenile delinquency by age fifteen (Williams, 1994). Research supports the notion that scientifically-based instruction provides all students with the best opportunity to prevent future academic, behavioral, and vocational problems associated with poor reading skill acquisition. The current study investigated the reliability and validity of a curriculum-based measure developed by the current author named Phonics Curriculum-Based Measurement (P-CBM). Two hundred and twenty five first grade students (117 males, 103 females) from two partnering school districts in rural western New York State were included in the study. The results indicated strong alternate forms reliability, inter-rater reliability, and concurrent validity. Upon further validation, P-CBM could be helpful in making screening, progress monitoring, or instructional planning decisions as well as providing pre-referral data to school psychologists who are conducting special education eligibility evaluations for a specific learning disability in reading.</p>

<p> <b><u>Background and Objective:</u></b> Lead exposure effects on IQ are well known, and detrimental impact of lead exposure on reading, math and school progress have been described. We evaluated the relationship between blood lead levels (BLLs) and kindergarten reading readiness in a diverse urban school population.</p><p> <b><u>Methods:</u></b> School administrative data and Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening Kindergarten (PALS-K) test scores, measures of kindergarten reading readiness, for children attending public school kindergarten in Providence, Rhode Island were linked to Department of Health BLLs. Children with at least one BLL and reading readiness scores in both the fall and spring were included in the study (N=3,406). Fifty-nine percent (59%) were Hispanic. Data were analyzed using multiple linear and logistic regression with progressive levels of adjustment.</p><p> <b><u>Results:</u></b> The median geometric mean (GM) BLL was 4.2 (IQR 2.9-6.0)&mu;g/dL. In the fall, children whose BLLs were 5-9 and &ge;10&mu;g/dL were 1.44 and 2.51 times more likely to fail to achieve fall benchmark for reading readiness [OR 1.44 (95%CI 1.23, 1.69) and OR 2.51 (95%CI 1.86, 3.40)] compared to children whose BLLs were 0-4&mu;g/dL. Fall reading readiness scores were decreased by 4.5 and 10 points for children with BLLs in the 5-9 and 10+&mu;g/dL categories, respectively, compared to children with BLLs 0-4&mu;g/dL [-4.5 points (95%CI -6.2, -2.9) and -10.1 points (95%CI -13.3, -7.0)]. In the spring, children who had scored below the fall benchmark and who had GM BLLs &ge;5&mu;g/dL were approximately 1.5 times more likely to fail to achieve the benchmark compared to children with BLLs &lt;5&mu;g/dL. For children who achieved the fall benchmark, BLLs were not associated with an increased risk of failure in the spring.</p><p> <b><u>Conclusions:</u></b> Children who enter kindergarten with low levels of reading readiness and GM BLLs of >5&mu;g/dL are at increased risk for failure to make adequate progress.</p>

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels continue to be at the centre of debate regarding the value of the series with respect to children’s literacy. Informing this debate are two perspectives: on one hand is the argument that Harry Potter encourages children to read and write; on the other hand is the position that the novels possess little inherent literary quality. Neither side has investigated the novels’ messages about literacy itself. To investigate these messages, this study applies a critical text analysis to the series’ depictions of literacy practices, defined here according to a sociocultural model encompassing reading and writing, speaking and listening, and viewing and representing. Critical perspectives form the theoretical foundation to this study. Critical social theory frames literacy practices within their social contexts; thus, this study organizes literacy practices according to their primary functions for characters in the novels: exchange, notification, domination /empowerment, and restriction. Poststructuralism, informed by Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, highlights the relationship between social practices and power. This study thus considers how characters undergo or exercise different kinds of power when they engage in literacy practices. This examination of literacy and power exposes the ideological assumptions behind literacy, revealing literacy practices to be sites for characters to experience and contest power. The novels also show that power over literacy is power over access to information, knowledge, and self-expression, and thus, over individuals and the world around them. The series suggests the importance of ownership of literacy, as well as encourages readers to be aware of the ways in which literacy practices can be tools of both oppression and empowerment. Arising from the study are implications regarding the nature of literacy and its relationship with power. Harry Potter shows that literacies are contextual, multiple, and value-laden social practices that participate in the making and unmaking of our social world. This dynamic mediation occurs through the operation of different kinds of power accompanying literacies: individuals experience passive socializing power through their exposure to literacy practices; individuals exercise active power on the world around them through literacies; and potential power residing in all forms of literacy makes other forms of power possible. For educators facing the decision whether or not to include the Harry Potter series in classrooms, understanding the novels’ messages about literacy is a beginning. Awareness of how characters in the series use literacy in the production and exercise of power will give teachers insight into the complexity of the role and function of literacy for children. Adopting a critical literacy approach in the classroom will help teachers encourage children to participate in discussions that specifically address the nature of literacy, its relationship with power, and the ideological assumptions that accompany its participation in society. This study also recommends that teachers specifically increase the presence of viewing/representing literacies in the classroom so as to highlight individuals as active agents of social reform.

<p> The focus of this comparative study was to examine the connection between attendance in preschool and kindergarten students' literacy success as measured by the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA2+). Historical data were obtained from the DRA2+ scores of 1,080 kindergarten students in one Missouri school district for the 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013 school years. The study was also used to determine the perceptions of kindergarten educators of the impact of preschool on their students. The following overarching question was: What difference exists when comparing the DRA2+ scores of kindergarten students who had a preschool experience and those who did not? Additionally, the perceptions of teachers working with students who had received an early learning experience and students who had not received an early learning experience were gathered. Using a t-test to examine the difference between the mean scores of participating and non-participating students, there was a statistically significant difference in scores of students who participated in preschool and those who did not for 2010-2011; however, there were not statistically significant differences in the sets of data for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. Educators surveyed in this research perceived that students who had not received an early learning experience seemed to have more difficulty learning the basics of school life; attending for longer periods of time; taking direction; using manipulatives, such as scissors, pencils, and crayons; and getting along with peers.</p>

<p> This study focused on the relationships between educator reading fluency constructs, reading fluency instruction and oral reading fluency assessment. Survey responses from sixty-six elementary educators in rural and urban north Georgia were analyzed to reach an understanding of why educators are likely to equate reading fluency with reading fast (Rasinski, 2009) and focus reading fluency instruction on raising reading rates (Manzo, 2005). The mixed-methods survey analysis informed a grounded theory describing the relationships between factors related to educator misunderstanding.</p><p> The mixed-methods analyses of survey responses indicated educator reading fluency constructs may or may not be related to reading fluency instruction and interpretation of oral reading fluency assessment scores. Similarly, findings suggested that oral reading fluency assessment use may or may not be related to educator reading fluency constructs, reading fluency instruction and interpretation of oral reading fluency assessment scores. Although a single source for educator misunderstanding was not isolated, the significant role of misinterpretation of oral reading fluency assessment scores and misunderstandings about the intended purposes of reading fluency instruction was demonstrated. Evidence suggested the need to clarify the intended use of oral reading fluency assessment scores with educators and administrators to guide appropriate instructional decision-making.</p>

Research paper (M.A.) -- Cardinal Stritch College -- Milwaukee, 1971. / A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education (Reading Specialist). Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-42).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0504. Adviser: Richard C. Anderson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-72) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.