The problem of this psychometric investigation was developed as four major areas for study: (1) a comprehensive processing model was designed and tested; (2) prediction of academic achievement, including group-administered versus individually-administered instruments, was investigated; (3) memory processes relative to schools and achievement…

The purposes of this study were to analyze the pronunciation of pupils and teachers to determine the deviation from the expected pronunciation for each group, and to determine the influence of dialect on reading performance of pupils. A random sample of 20 first grade pupils and 20 elementary teachers from four small, rural, all-white elementary…

The PLATO Elementary Reading Curriculum (PERC), a computer based instructional program, is presented in this report. The aims of the PERC staff were to: (1) build a complete computer based reading curriculum designed to bring students from illiteracy to literacy; (2) design into the curriculum structure the possibility for use in a wide range of…

This study investigated the effect of two social dialects, Black English (BE) and standard English (SE), and word frequency on performance in blending and word recognition. The subjects were 60 second-grade children from three ethnic groups: 20 white SE speaking children, 20 black BE speaking children, and 20 black SE speaking children. The…

This report, one of a series of twenty-one studies discussing the developmental history of a recent educational product, discusses a beginning reading program for kindergarten that is planned as part of a broader communication skills program for the elementary grades. The first section of the report describes the product, which consists of student…

A high correlation between on-line rate of progress and student achievement on a standardized test was found for a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program in initial reading. In most cases, CAI measures of progress were better indications of spring test performance than was the pretest given in the fall. Rates of progress in the parts or…

A lengthy and detailed description is given of a computer-based curriculum for initial reading, with emphasis on reading as decoding. The initial curriculum, prepared for a school in Cupertino, California, was closely linked to the three basal reading texts then being used in the district's primary classrooms and was programed as three separate…

One hundred black children in two all-black elementary schools in rural Florida were taught reading by a method described as Differentiated, Oral, Visual, Aural, Computerized, Kinesthetic (DOVACK). The children dictated their own stories in their own Afro-American dialect on dictaphone belts. A computer furnished printouts of the stories for the…

The relationships between prereading measures of auditory discrimination, letter knowledge, and intelligence and reading ability were investigated for pupils who completed grades 1 and 2 in four different types of instructional programs--conventional basal reading programs, i/t/a programs, language-experience approaches, and code-emphasis…

The feasibility of devising a highly individualized reading program for low-achieving 6-year-old children centering on structured tutoring was investigated. The 33 subjects from three schools would enter first grade in the fall and were considered low achievers on the basis of kindergarten testing. Upper-grade elementary students volunteered to…

A study was conducted to determine the relationship between auditory perceptual skills and first-grade reading success when readiness and intelligence measures were used in conjunction with auditory skills assessments. Sex differences were also considered. Six boys and six girls were randomly selected from each of 10 first-grade classrooms.…

The criteria used to compare the effectiveness of the individualized and basal reader approaches in this study were based on vocabulary, comprehension, and attitude toward reading as well as the number, type, and difficulty of books voluntarily read during second grade. Near the end of kindergarten, children in three schools were randomly assigned…

Children exposed to the Language Experience Approach are able to conceptualize that what they think about they can say; what they say can be written or dictated to the teacher; what has been written can be read; and that they can read what they have written, and what others have written for them to read. It is recommended that a child first begin…

A 6-year research project which investigated sex differences in beginning reading in the Los Angeles City Schools is reported. In 1962-63 approximately 550 first-grade children were taught reading in sex-segregated groups. It was found that boys grouped together did not gain significantly more than those in heterogeneous sex groups and that girls'…

Swedish children, who receive extensive readiness activities in their first months in school, are taught through a diagnostic approach which involves observation, diagnosis, and treatment of difficulty by the classroom teacher. Results of a 6-year longitudinal study of the system revealed (1) the degree of success achieved by a program of remedial…