Reading Program Evaluation: A Plan for Effective Implementation

In recent years schools have increasingly been faced with the question of accountability. Parents, as well as the general public, are concerned about the quality of instruction which is currently being provided, often noting the decrease in standardized test scores nationally as a primary indicator of fundamental problems in education. Nowhere has this concern been more evident than in the area of reading instruction. Current reading practices and procedures are frequently cited as being ineffective and unworkable. The slogan return to the basics is a rallying cry heard throughout the land. In response to these criticisms, schools have found themselves being placed on the degensive with increased importance being given to various forms of curriculum evaluation

Evaluation of the reading program : decisions for improvement

As noted throughout this monograph, any reading program evaluation is largely dependent for its eventual outcome upon the knowledge and attitudes each classroom teacher has concerning both the total reading program in a school as well as their own individual efforts. Without a commitment by each member of the teaching staff to not only be willing to participate in the evaluation process but in the final analysis to honestly consider appropriate changes when they are indicated, any reading program evaluation becomes little more than organized "busywork." The authors of this monograph encourage school teachers to consider the benefits of a carefully developed reading evaluation.--Conclusio

Reading and writing in the school and home

Photos by Duane Dailey, "1/84/6M""Recently, teachers and educational researchers have been paying more attention to the meaningful interrelationships among the various language forms. Once instructors divided language into its component parts of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Now, educators know that these distinctions served no useful purpose. For many children, this classification probably hindered rather than simplified the learning process."--Page 1.Richard D. Robinson (College of Education), Joycelin Hulett (Columbia Public Schools, Columbia, Missouri