This study, conducted during the 2006/07 academic year, describes how four midsize urban school districts in the Northeast and Islands Region--Worcester, Massachusetts; Nashua, New Hampshire; Yonkers, New York; and Providence, Rhode Island--were providing foundation skills assessments and programs to struggling middle-grade readers. Researchers…

Forty-five children with mathematics learning disabilities, with and without comorbid reading disabilities, were compared to 45 normally achieving peers in tasks assessing basic numerical skills. Children with mathematics disabilities were only impaired when comparing Arabic digits (i.e., symbolic number magnitude) but not when comparing…

This paper provides information about Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGT) and Georgia High School Writing Test (GHSWT). The purpose of the exams is to: (1) Ensure that students qualifying for a diploma have mastered essential core academic content and skills. All students seeking a Georgia high school diploma must pass the GHSGT in four…

The Rostrum is a quarterly publication of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) The Need for full Time faculty (again) by Jane Patton; (2) Reading May Be the Key to Unlocking Basic Skills Success by Janet Fulks; (3) Diversity Institute on the Right Track by Beth Smith; (4)…

State education departments, in discussions with Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast, identified low reading achievement as a critical issue for their students and expressed an interest in identifying effective strategies to promote the foundational skills in young students that might improve reading achievement. The Mississippi…

The Basic Skills Agency (formerly the Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit--ALBSU) is the national development agency for literacy, numeracy and related basic skills in England and Wales. This agency defines basic skills as " the ability to read, write, and speak in English and use mathematics at a level necessary to function and progress at…

This article focuses on the need for children to think their way into achievement of the four basic sets of skills so as to become fully developed as humans. (PD)

The speaker briefly covers the history of the "back to basics" movement, some of the practices that have helped create the movement, an alternative view of what is "basic" in education, and some of the oversimplifications and possible adverse consequences that might result from an unbridled back-to-basics movement. (Author/IRT)

The first priority of our schools should be to provide students with fundamental literacy skills and to provide them with enough understanding of the society so they can function effectively as citizens. More emphasis should be placed on education about the economic system. (Author/IRT)

Industrial education today must address the basic skills necessary to control and understand the manufacturing process. Machining, welding, and a common-sense knowledge of mechanics are needed. (JOW)

Preparing handicapped preschoolers for mainstreamed kindergarten should focus on developing kindergarten survival skills. Comparison of survival skills identified by teachers with skills measured by common preschool assessment instruments indicated only slight congruence. Programs should emphasize teaching such survival skills rather than…

This brief commentary argues that basic skills can and should be taught in preschool with the aid of instructional technology programs such as Distar. (Author/SS)

Special education teachers working in intermediate grades and in middle school grades face many challenges as they teach both developmental reading skills and subject matter material. Not only must they deal with the increased vocabulary and domain demands of teaching informational text, they must also handle the needs of students who have not yet…

This article describes how children learn the basic addition and subtraction facts, why many have difficulty mastering these basic skills, and what teachers can do to prevent or overcome these learning difficulties.