In this 1-year experimental study of 254 students across 27 high-poverty preschool classrooms in an urban setting in the northeast, use of a technology-based prekindergarten literacy curriculum in addition to the district curriculum was compared with the use of the district curriculum alone. Results indicated no main effects for the experimental curriculum. Following the initial analyses, fidelity of implementation in the experimental classrooms was examined and results indicated that children in classrooms rated as having high fidelity of implementation significantly outperformed low-implementing classrooms on two important phonological awareness measures. This trend favoring high-implementing classrooms was also evident on measures of lettername knowledge, and beginning sounds. These findings suggest that program implementation may be a significant variable when examining the potential effects of literacy curricula on learning outcomes for young at-risk children.

The present study replicated the original evaluation of the Howard Street tutoring model (Morris, Shaw, & Perney, 1990), an intervention for struggling readers in second and third grade. It also evaluated the effectiveness of supervised paraprofessionals (Title I aides) in delivering that tutorial. For an entire school year, teachers or paraprofessionals, working under the supervision of a reading specialist, tutored 40 struggling readers twice per week for 45 minutes per session. The tutored group's instruction included guided reading in leveled texts with controlled vocabulary, word study, and reading for fluency. The control group's instruction, which was provided daily in a small-group context, featured guided reading and phonics work in the classroom basal reader. Analysis of covariance was used to compare the performance of the two groups on several end-of-year reading measures. Results showed that, overall, the tutored group outperformed the control group on each of the posttest reading measures (standardized and informal). In addition, the subset of students tutored by paraprofessionals outperformed the control students. In fact, results indicated that in the structured tutoring context, paraprofessional tutors were almost as effective as certified teachers.

Since well before the release of the National Reading Panel report in 2000, phonemic awareness has been an important topic for reading researchers. However, it is unclear the extent to which commercial materials for phonemic awareness instruction are consistent with that report and subsequent research. In the current study, we investigated the use of commercial kindergarten materials for such instruction in one state and suggest that the most widely used materials have areas of inconsistency with the science of reading. Notably, the commercial materials reviewed here did not take orthographic development into sufficient account. Additionally, the materials did not use letters and did not limit focus to one or two skills. Implications for classroom instruction, teacher education, commercial materials development, and future research are identified.

This survey design study involved preservice special education service providers who were in degree seeking programs in the departments of special education, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. Participants provided views and belief structures on diversity issues identified through a review of literature, including (a) English language issues, (b) ability to have success with diverse groups, (c) service provider roles with diverse populations, and (d) the role of institutions of higher education in preparing service providers to work with diverse populations. One of the groups of participants was part of the Service Learning Mexico Project (SLMP) course and the other was a matched group of on-campus traditional students who did not participate in service learning. Our results suggest differences between the two groups which may link to future practices with students from diverse backgrounds.