A Study of Home Emergent Literacy Experiences of Young Latino English Learners

This empirical study explored the home environment literacy practices of young Latino English learners and their families. The participants were 217 incoming Kindergarten Latino EL students and parents. The data collection included a completed HLEQ by the parents. In addition, children were administered the PPVT, the pre- LAS, the PALS-K screening, the Woodcock Reading Mastery assessment, and the Wide Range Achievement test. All of the literacy assessments given to the children provided the researchers with comprehensive look at their literacy knowledge base. The results of this study indicate that there were two significant paths for students’ achievement: availability of books and child initiated literacy factors that were directly related to the phonological processing efforts of students

Uncertainty Evaluation of Computational Model Used to Support the Integrated Powerhead Demonstration Project

NASA and the U.S. Air Force are working on a joint project to develop a new hydrogen-fueled, full-flow, staged combustion rocket engine. The initial testing and modeling work for the Integrated Powerhead Demonstrator (IPD) project is being performed by NASA Marshall and Stennis Space Centers. A key factor in the testing of this engine is the ability to predict and measure the transient fluid flow during engine start and shutdown phases of operation. A model built by NASA Marshall in the ROCket Engine Transient Simulation (ROCETS) program is used to predict transient engine fluid flows. The model is initially calibrated to data from previous tests on the Stennis E1 test stand. The model is then used to predict the next run. Data from this run can then be used to recalibrate the model providing a tool to guide the test program in incremental steps to reduce the risk to the prototype engine. In this paper, they define this type of model as a calibrated model. This paper proposes a method to estimate the uncertainty of a model calibrated to a set of experimental test data. The method is similar to that used in the calibration of experiment instrumentation. For the IPD example used in this paper, the model uncertainty is determined for both LOX and LH flow rates using previous data. The successful use of this model is then demonstrated to predict another similar test run within the uncertainty bounds. The paper summarizes the uncertainty methodology when a model is continually recalibrated with new test data. The methodology is general and can be applied to other calibrated models

Special Education in a 4-Year Response to Intervention (RtI) Environment: Characteristics of Students with Learning Disability and Grade of Identification

This 4-year longitudinal research was designed to study special education determinations of students who participated in Tier 2 intervention in a Response to Intervention (RtI) model focused on reading across Grades 1-4. We compared identification rates for learning disabilities (LD) and student characteristics of 381 students the year prior to implementation with 377 students in the RtI environment. Across schools, 38-60 percent of students were English language learners (ELL). Key outcomes by Grade 4 for students with LD who had participated in a model of RtI were relatively greater reading impairment with effect sizes ranging from 0.64 to 0.82, and more equitable representation across ELL and native English speakers than in the cohort prior to RtI implementation. Notably, one-third of the students identified for special services as LD in these schools were not identified until 4th grade. © 2013 The Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children

Vocabulary Instruction for Struggling Students

xiv, 190 hlm.; 25,5 cm

Routes to comprehension for second-graders with reading problems: one-to-one tutoring in repeated reading versus comprehension strategy instruction

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000This year-long study compared two types of one-to-one tutoring for second graders with a history of reading problems. The purpose of this study was to examine two approaches to improving comprehension skill: through developing students' reading fluency, or through teaching students strategies for monitoring their understanding. Reading Partners treatment provided repeated reading practice with expository passages. Thinking Partners treatment provided scaffolded instruction in five comprehension strategies coordinated with reading grade-level trade books: keeping track, thinking ahead, understanding words, making connections, and making questions. Two major research questions were addressed: (1) the relative effects of treatments on reading rate and accuracy, and on reading comprehension; and (2) the student and tutor characteristics that influence the effectiveness of each tutoring approach, including students' precursor reading skills, tutor implementation of instruction, and program variables.Forty three students participated in the study, 27 in Thinking Partners and 16 in Reading Partners. Students were randomly assigned to treatments which occurred in nine elementary schools. Students in each treatment received one-half hour of individual tutoring four days a week for an average of 39 hours of instruction. Data were collected on: student reading skills at pretest, student reading rate in daily Reading Partners lessons, student strategy use in Thinking Partners lessons, tutor implementation, and student reading skills at posttest. Reading skills were assessed on both standard and experimenter-designed measures.Four types of findings emerged from analysis of the data. First, reading skills improved significantly in both groups from pretest to posttest. Second there were no significant differences between groups in reading skills at posttest. Third, rapid letter naming was the only significant predictor of student fluency and accuracy scores, and PPVT was the only significant predictor of comprehension. Student fluency gain in Reading Partners lessons was significantly predicted by rapid letter naming. Quality of tutoring did not significantly influence student reading outcomes. Fourth, there were no differential treatment effects for students based on their entry level reading skills. Fifth, there were no program or student variables that significantly predicted strategy use by Thinking Partners students.Findings are discussed in light of verbal efficiency theory and the complexity of reading fluency