We explore the use of iPads in a diverse urban high school and the ways in which teachers and students were supported to integrate these tools into their instruction. We provided 4 English teachers with 20 iPads with little or no professional development about how to integrate them into their instruction. Using a formative experiment design, we…

The instructional hierarchy offers a useful framework for targeting academic interventions. Within this framework, the accuracy with which a student reads might function as an indicator that the student should receive an intervention that focuses either on accuracy or on fluency. The current study examined whether the instructional level for…

Direct vocabulary instruction is 1 critical component of reading instruction. Although most students in the elementary grades need to continue building their vocabulary knowledge, students with reading difficulties are at the greatest risk of falling further behind each year in vocabulary and concept knowledge without effective instruction. This…

We examined data from an 18-week kindergarten vocabulary intervention study to determine whether treatment outcomes had differential effects that favored English language learners (ELLs) or English-only learners (EOLs) and whether the relationship between initial English general receptive vocabulary knowledge and response to vocabulary…

In this article, we describe our research involving the administration of the Critical Reading Inventory-2 (CRI-2), an informal reading inventory that places special emphasis on thoughtful response to text and higher level thinking. We administered the CRI-2 to a group of students to obtain diagnostic data for guiding instruction. The data for…

This article discusses why early and sustained vocabulary development is important for listening and reading comprehension development and presents findings from 8 studies implemented with children of mostly low socioeconomic status in settings from day care to first grade. Program interventions were based on learning new vocabulary developed out…

Accurate identification of at-risk kindergarten and 1st-grade students through early reading screening is an essential element of responsiveness to intervention models of reading instruction. The authors consider predictive validity and classification accuracy of early reading screening assessments with attention to sensitivity and specificity.…

This article describes a social and emotional learning intervention, the "Responsive Classroom"[R] (RC) approach, which is designed to produce classroom environments conducive to learning. It summarizes a new body of research describing the efficacy of the RC approach. One component of the RC approach is the Morning Meeting. This article describes…

We provide a description of how a culturally and linguistically diverse elementary school in the Midwest implemented core features of a response-to-intervention (RTI) framework for improving school-wide reading instruction and decision making. A multi-year timeline illustrates how this school implemented additional elements of the RTI framework…

First-grade students from 6 Title I schools participated in this study, which used a response to intervention (RTI) framework to examine the retention of 1st-grade students. Researchers examined reading and behavior data from 3 cohorts of students (1 historical control cohort and 2 cohorts receiving tiered reading instruction) and data gathered…

Much of the student diversity in U.S. schools reflects increasing numbers of English language learners (ELL). ELL represent a very heterogeneous group in terms of their native language proficiency, educational experiences, access to quality early childhood programs, and immigration experiences. An unfortunate commonality they often share is poor…

This study matched 15 kindergarten and 1st-grade retained students in 7 schools with their promoted peers on grade-level literacy performance. Researchers collected literacy assessments, demographic information, and instruction dosage data. Retained kindergarten students received less intervention and did not benefit academically from retention.…

This article examines the role of direct instruction in promoting listening and reading comprehension. Instructional examples from 2 programs of intervention research focused on improving comprehension; the Story Read Aloud Program and the Embedded Story Structure Routine are used to illustrate principles of direct instruction. An analysis of…

For well over a century, behavioral researchers have attempted to understand the relation between juvenile delinquency and academic achievement. The authors review current literature pertaining to academic achievement and its effect on delinquency. While researchers have not yet been able to establish a direct causal relation between these two…

This study assessed the effects of self-monitoring on the quantity and quality of creative writing of fourth-grade students with learning disabilities. The participants, four fourth-grade students with identified learning disabilities, self-monitored both the quantity and quality of their writing. Results show a statistically significant increase…