In a response to intervention (RtI) model, reading is taught in increasingly intensive tiers of instruction. The aim of the study was to examine the efficacy of a Tier-2 (small group) literacy intervention for young struggling readers. This article focuses on the second phase of a randomised control trial involving 14 students in kindergarten as…

The focus of this paper is on the assessment of the two main processes that children must acquire at the single word reading level: word recognition (lexical) and decoding (nonlexical) skills. Guided by the framework of the dual route model, this study aimed to (1) investigate the impact of item characteristics on test performance, and (2)…

Using a case-series design with double baseline and 10-week maintenance phase, 5 struggling readers from middle- to high-income families (age range 6.4-7.9 years) completed a 5-times-weekly intervention (96 sessions) administered by a parent. All participants completed the intervention with phonological decoding, text-reading accuracy and reading…

Poor comprehenders are generally students who have significant language-learning deficits. A particular problem for students with poor comprehension is that they have difficulty learning new vocabulary because they are inclined to read less, and are unable to apply new meanings to unfamiliar words. This leads to the situation where the gap widens…

A large gap is evident between the reading and related skills performance of Aboriginal students compared with that of their non-indigenous peers and this gap increases over the primary years of schooling. In this study, 34 students attended a tutorial centre in Sydney for older low-progress readers in Years 5 and 6, for two school terms. All…

This article first examines recent theoretical and empirical research on reading development and instruction in English-speaking countries. Then, a study is described that examines the effects of a synthetic phonics-emphasis Direct Instruction remedial reading program on the phonological processes of students, with teacher-identified serious…

In this article, the authors review the way in which the Victorian government has responded to the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools, and consider what further efforts could be made to improve inclusive educational practices. Key measures introduced by the state education authority in relation to the…

The aim of this study was to develop a means of tracking the reading performance of low-progress readers on a weekly basis, so as to inform instructional decision-making. A representative sample of 261 primary school children from Years 1 to 5 were tested on 21 different text passages taken from a developing passage reading test, the Wheldall…

This case study examined the effects of a parent-presented Direct Instruction decoding program on the reading and language skills of a child with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. Following the 23 hour intervention, reading comprehension, listening comprehension and fluency skills improved to grade level, whilst statistically significant…

The article raises misgivings toward recent proposals to require standardized literacy testing for 10- to 14-year-olds in Australia. Three other papers on the dangers and possibilities of literacy assessment are reviewed. It is concluded that the teacher parent partnership and learning are threatened by an increased government role in assessment.…