These are the appendixes for the report, "Trends and Gaps in Reading Achievement across Kindergarten and Grade 1 in Two Illinois School Districts." This study examined reading achievement data for kindergarten and grade 1 students in two districts in Illinois: District U-46 (Elgin Area Schools) and District 186 (Springfield Public…

The What Works Clearinghouse™ is a federally funded source of scientific evidence for what works in education. The What Works Clearinghouse aims to disseminate findings from rigorous education research to the education community. One mechanism for accomplishing this aim is the production of practice guides. Panels of national content experts,…

The purpose of this study is to determine how different public-school teachers and staff perceive school climate at an achieving public middle school. The research sought to find relationships between teacher sub-groups and other staff members, and how they perceived the school climate, either negatively or positively. The researcher believed that…

A limited body of research exists that considers reading teachers' perceptions and attitudes about a dialogic approach to teaching (Dunn, 2018). The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate elementary reading teachers' perceptions and attitudes about a dialogic approach to teaching. Sociocultural Theory was the framework that…

While the conceptual link between teachers' knowledge of reading-related concepts and student reading outcomes is widely acknowledged in the field, few studies have empirically examined this correlation, especially regarding student reading comprehension. Thus, the present dissertation study aimed to investigate teachers' knowledge of reading…

Educators often inquire about the readability of books and other documents used in the classroom, with the idea that readability supports students' reading comprehension and growth. Documents used in classrooms tend to be language-based, so readability metrics have long focused on the complexity of language. However, such metrics are unsuitable…

As students enter middle school, many lack literacy skills, especially English language learners (ELLs). The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to examine what supports middle school teachers perceived they needed to be effective using response to intervention (RTI) strategies with ELLs. This basic qualitative study was framed by the RTI…

This Kindergarten Teacher's Guide provides information for kindergarten teachers on how to support families as they practice foundational reading skills at home. It serves as a companion to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade. Both guides present four…

The present study examined potential synergistic relationships between reading engagement and reading comprehension among 3,689 third and fourth graders across 59 schools in North Carolina. Using hierarchical regression analyses, we replicated previous findings that reading engagement explains unique variance in reading comprehension. Our results…

This article describes a mixed-methods study that examines the effects of literature circles (peer-led small group discussion of an assigned reading) on the reading achievement of college students taking developmental reading courses. The researcher-developed intervention was comprised of three connected activities (collaborative oral re-tell,…

Many teachers feel that students should not struggle with text; instead, they should read easier texts in order to learn from them and make adequate growth in reading. In turn, teachers might use easier or leveled texts as a solution or a graphic novel or multimodal version to differentiate text reading and to motivate and engage reluctant…

The low income and poverty-stricken areas of Mississippi have historically suffered from low-test scores, low graduation rates, and a high concentration of special education students. Additionally, poor, Black Mississippians have performed lower, have lower graduation rates, and score lower in college readiness than do students in the rest of the…

Motivating reluctant readers has always been a challenge. The author designed a conference structure in which explicit evidence of the student's progress is presented. The structure includes a review by the teacher of the student's prior reading level and documentation of the student's current skills. A conference with the student follows in which…

Prosodic sensitivity (PS) and phonological awareness (PA) are reading-related predictors in children, which themselves might be affected by basic auditory processing (BAP). This study proposes a new model that considers possible relations between all three variables and reading. Skilled adult reading is examined to exclude possible developmental…

This qualitative study investigated how teaching an historical unit through a critical lens might empower students to evaluate sources, challenge fake news, and make informed decisions. The reading intervention teacher in this study engaged secondary students in reading, discussing, and critiquing a series of multimodal historical texts. Grounded…