The reading abilities of low achieving high school students at two schools were compared to the readability levels of the magazines in which they showed interest. The median tested reading ability of these students was reported as third/fourth grade by their reading teachers. The reading specialist at one high school reported that boys had an…

Describes a study that examined the readability of papers "College and Research Libraries" accepted, rejected, and published for 1990 and 1991. Results showing a statistically significant difference for the text of papers but not for abstracts are reported, and topics for further research are suggested. (Contains six references.) (EAM)

Early in the 20th century, educators began looking for scientific methods for matching texts with readers. Some of the best minds in education dedicated themselves to this task, including Edward L. Thorndike, William S. Gray, Ralph Tyler, Edgar Dale, Irving Lorge, and Jeanne S. Chall. The purpose of this book is to bring students of reading into…

To assist textbook adoption committees in answering the questions that arise as they consider basal reading series, this paper provides a discussion of readability. Following a brief introduction, the second section of the paper offers a background discussion of what readability really means. In addition, this section looks at three factors to…

A selection of seven articles on teaching reading to high school students is presented in this report. The topics discussed are: (1) a structured approach to reading expository prose, (2) the effectiveness of sustained silent reading, (3) readability variations in secondary remedial high interest books, (4) the effects of previewing difficult…

This study examined the effect of two ways of question phrasing as related to three styles of expository writing on the test performance of elementary school children. Multiple-choice questions were developed for sets of passages which were written using three different syntactic structures; and which had different levels of difficulty. The…

The reading achievement test scores of 239 low-income, southern, urban black students in grades three through eight were compared with their ability to comprehend the social studies books used in their classrooms. Achievement scores were obtained from the reading subtests of the Stanford Achievement Tests. A cloze passage was developed based on…

To develop a new model of the reading process, a longitudinal study investigated the importance of the concepts of cohesion and register (fiction or nonfiction) in the assessment of text readability. Subjects, 436 8-year-olds (Cohort A), 474 10-year-olds (Cohort B), and 445 13-year-olds (Cohort C) from 23 urban and rural British schools--most of…

A study was conducted to determine if increasing the redundancy of sections in scientific articles where typical readers became bored or confused would have a desirable effect on other readers. Undergraduate journalism students applied R. F. Carter's signalled stopping technique to two different science articles by indicating points where they…

Reported is a study designed to determine whether reading grade level (RGL) assessment techniques used for elementary and secondary education textbooks would discriminate among plant and soil science textbooks. The study was to select the RGL indices suited to quantify the readability of these sources, and to identify the factors affecting…

Reports on a study which attempted to determine the reading level of 70 filmstrips with captions that form logical sequences. Results indicate that the classroom teacher might want to use readability formulae in planning the use of filmstrips. (Author/SA)

Vocabulary acquisition traditionally has been a struggle for students with special learning needs. This study involved an eleven year old fifth grade student with learning disabilities in reading and writing and limited English proficiency. Assistive technology assistance was provided from the Franklin Language Master 6000b and Microsoft's Power…

A pilot study explored the nature of the relationship between test and classroom evidence and considered how these different sources of evidence were used in assessing and promoting student growth and development in reading. Test estimates of third-grade children in two public elementary programs in New York City were compared with estimates of…

The first phase of a study investigating textbook readability and students' reading levels used three traditional formulas to assess the readability levels of 51 primary textbooks from college introductory social science courses in 7 disciplines. The second phase investigated the relationship between the readability levels of students' texts,…

A study investigating the influence of certain features of cohesion and coherence on Israeli college students' difficulty in reading English expository texts examined the reader's ability to understand sequences of propositions and familiarity with markers of cohesion. Three methods were used to investigate the problem: application of a…