P.L. 94–142 requires that parents become involved in the educational decision-making of their handicapped child. For parents to become involved, they need to be familiar with the various complexities of the law so they can make informed decisions about their child's education. State and local education agencies inform parents primarily through printed materials. This study surveyed materials used by the 50 states and evaluated their comprehensibility. A computer program, using four common readability formulas, analyzed selected passages for their readability. Other factors also analyzed included print size, use of examples, comprehensibility, and page density. Results indicated a range of reading levels from grades five through eight. These results are interpreted in the context of reading literacy. Issues involved in development of materials for parents and future analysis of these materials are discussed.

This report describes the evolution of an innovative research project in which inservice special education teachers engaged in collaborative strategy instruction with small groups of severely reading-delayed adolescents (ages 12-16). The project stressed working with teachers to resolve problems of application; this report emphasizes how teachers' contributions resulted in a unique approach to reading strategy instruction. The characteristics of the teacher education model are described and related to experimental findings from research carried out to test the effects of the model. Nine experimental and 7 control teachers and their students took part in the study. Experimental teachers received peer support from previously trained teachers and took part in self-evaluative workshops as they applied collaborative reading strategy instruction with their students. An analysis of videotaped pre-and posttest reading sessions showed significant gains in favor of experimental teachers on many dimensions related to fostering strategic reading, which were mirrored by related gains in students. A standardized comprehension test also favored experimental students. The report concludes with a discussion of some of the problems in achieving enduring effects with educational innovations and with suggestions for future research.

Despite suggestions from research to the contrary, developing oral-language proficiency in languageminority students often takes precedence over reading comprehension. This report explores the use of reading comprehension instruction as a gateway for developing oral language in language-minority students. Based on classroom observations, analyses of videotapes of literacy teaching sessions, conversations with teachers and administrators, and analyses of demonstration lessons, six prevalent instructional issues, defined as competencies, were identified that could be developed in students to increase both reading comprehension and language development. These include the ability to use the English language with flexibility, to use less-imageable basic vocabulary, to consider larger contexts, to determine importance and unimportance of aspects of text, to elaborate responses, and to engage in natural conversations. A discussion of these competenicies is followed by a set of suggestions for teaching them that draw upon the primary language, cognitive strengths, and social skills of languageminority students. Although these teaching suggestions focus on the development of reading comprehension, they also provide natural opportunities for students to increase their understanding and use of English. Suggested teaching activities include: shared reading; vocabulary networking; expanding contexts; predicting; encouraging the use of imagery; teaching about text structures; questioning, identifying problems, and sharing strategies; text explaining; arranging for conversational opportunities; and using culturally familiar informational texts. Recommendations for implementing these instructional activities by grade level are included.Anderson & Roit Linking Reading Comprehension Instruction -2

The decline in the written communications skills of students has been addressed both in the professional literature and in public forums. A particular concern is the lack of attention that deficits in the area of written expression have received in special education. The remedial frame-work and applied interventions of many LD teachers reflect a mechanistic conceptualization of the process of written expression. This article examines how current instructional practices prelude the development of meaningful written expression in LD children.

Several activities are presented for developing flexibility in vocabulary and sentence structure, and organizing and sequencing ideas.