This descriptive case study examined educators' perceptions of the effect of tiered instruction on the reading achievement of kindergarten students. The purpose was to explore and describe current cultural and structural conditions that support or inhibit effective school-level implementation of a Response to Intervention (RtI) model. This study…

Research Findings: In each of 16 public school classrooms serving multiethnic low-income neighborhoods, 2 first graders were assigned to be taught patterning, 2 to be taught reading, 2 to be taught mathematics, and 2 to be taught social studies for 15-min sessions 3 days per week for 6 months. Assignment within each classroom was randomized. The…

The present study used two letter detection tasks, the classic missing letter effect paradigm and a single word versus familiar word compound version of this paradigm, to study bottom-up and top-down processes involved in reading in normally achieving as compared to low achieving elementary school readers. The research participants were children…

This was a qualitative case study that compared data across six district-level literacy coaches' epistemological and ontological beliefs about how to teach reading. All six coaches were working as a cohort of literacy coaches on the development and implementation of a secondary reading intervention program for seventh-grade struggling readers.…

This study examined the components of a one-on-one literacy tutoring model to identify the necessary and sufficient elements for helping struggling beginning readers. The tutoring components of interest included word work using manipulative letters, written word work, and a generalization component. Reading assessment data from 100 first-grade…

This study examined the school and student predictors of early reading outcomes for kindergarten students enrolled in schools that participated in a beginning reading reform program. The study employed a nested design with students nested within schools and applied hierarchical linear modeling analyses to account for the organizational structure…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an instructional framework through which schools can provide early intervention for students experiencing academic and behavioral difficulties. It is also promoted as an alternative to the IQ-discrepancy model for identifying students with learning disabilities. Most states have developed, or are developing,…

William S. Gray, first president of the International Reading Association, is the focus of this booklet. Sections are devoted to "The Person," which includes Gray's family background, early schooling and teaching jobs, and his further education at Illinois State University, the University of Chicago, and Teachers College (Columbia…

Reviews the literature in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) on models describing the reading process. (RB)

Outlines a psycholinguistic framework for reading and spelling methodology at the preliminary stage. Based on the theory of metalinguistic development of A. Karmiloff-Smith and J. Gombert, the framework involves a three-step model for early reading and spelling instruction. The approach balances focus on meaning with focus on skill. (SLD)

Reviews the literature on decodable text, instructional material containing words with phonically regular relationships that the reader has been taught. Synthesizes findings into a theoretical model that suggests a specific developmental juncture in which decodable text may be useful. Concludes that additional analyses of words in text are not…

The use of the term "response to intervention" focuses on its potential utility for diagnosis of learning disabilities. In this context, "response to intervention" can be understood as a diagnostic approach for determining which students are entitled to special educational services. It is important to notice that the validity of the RTI diagnostic…

This paper reports findings from a large-scale evaluation undertaken to explore the impact of the "linguistic phonics approach" (LPA) on young children's reading. The LPA is a systematic and applied programme that differs from traditional phonics programmes. For example, rather than ask children to look at letters and speculate on the…

This paper presents a model for classifying initial approaches to the teaching of reading. The model consists of three dimensions: the degree of structuring of the program, the sequence of gradation of reading units, and the kind of symbol system used in the initial stages of reading instruction. The degrees of structuring refers to programs such…

Sixty skilled and 60 less-skilled readers were tested for oral reading skills at the end of one, two, and three years of reading instruction, to study the acquisition of reading fluency. A 3 x 2 x 3 ANOVA was used to analyze the influence of years of practice and instruction, reading skill, and levels of word accuracy on oral reading fluency.…