A study was conducted to determine whether primary school children who were taught reading with an experimental modality prescriptive-diagnostic reading program achieved higher reading comprehension scores in the intermediate grades than did children who were taught reading with a traditional reading approach. The experimental group was composed…

Examines the effectiveness of a systems approach, diagnostic reading program. (RB)

The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effect of a diagnostic structured kindergarten program on the predicted reading levels of disadvantaged urban children and to compare the effect of this program with the effect of the traditional kindergarten curriculum. The subjects were 196 children in eight kindergarten classes. More than 70% of…

The project described in this document involves the implementation of an individualized reading program with sixth graders during the spring semesters of the 1970-71 school year and the 1971-72 school year. Behavioral objectives for the students were written in the areas of word recognition skills, vocabulary skills, comprehension skills, speed…

The effects of individually prescribed instruction (IPI) in reading as compared to the traditional mode of instruction are examined. The IPI model includes four components: analysis of subject matter content, diagnosis of student preinstructional behavior, sequencing of materials to facilitate learning, and evaluation strategies. Elementary…

A program of early diagnosis and instruction of kindergarten children predicted to have difficulty in learning how to read was investigated. All kindergarten children enrolled in a rural school system were screened with the Teacher Inventory for the Early Identification of High Risk Readers. Those with scores below one standard deviation on the…

This report focuses on techniques that can be used to learn more about the strengths and shortcomings of reading programs, of the teaching of reading, and of the students involved. The first article provides information about the "Handbook of Planning an Effective Reading Program," a guide published by the California State Department of…

This paper discusses an investigation that compared college students' reading gains when using general or specific diagnosis. It reports that significant gains were made on many subskills of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test by the group that had the prescriptions developed as a result of a differential (specific) diagnosis and that there were…

A study was conducted to measure the effect and compare the results of developmental reading instruction for college students as prescribed from the specific results of a diagnostic reading test and a general, more traditionally used, survey reading test. The sample consisted of 226 students enrolled in different sections of a reading course…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the scores of groups who were instructed by two individualized instructional methods on characteristics hypothesized as being related to the instructional treatments. The instructional treatments consisted of a prescriptive method based upon behavioristic theory and a personalized method based upon…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: a mature reader's use of consciously employed strategies to facilitate comprehension; contextual and acontextual approaches to teaching vocabulary to adult students; methods for teaching…

In implementing a districtwide reading project emphasizing staff development for middle school level teachers, the Moore County, North Carolina district conducted a study to determine whether middle school children could exceed their prior reading growth rates over a three-year period. Students from grades four through eight were pretested in the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: the effects of reading preference, diagnostic-prescriptive teaching, prior knowledge, training in visual imagery, and electromyograph biofeedback training on reading comprehension;…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 22 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: development of a primary reading vocabulary; a strategy for teaching students how to identify main ideas and supporting details; reading readiness and reading…