A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Reading Excellence Act State Competitive Grant Program: Non-Regulatory Guidance for State Applicants – March 9, 1999

Appendix F. Definitions

The following definitions are contained in Section 2252 of the Reading Excellence Act.

  1. ELIGIBLE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROVIDER — The term ?eligible professional development provider? means a provider of professional development in reading instruction to teachers that is based on scientifically based reading research.

  2. FAMILY LITERACY SERVICES — The term ?family literacy services? means services provided to participants on a voluntary basis that are of sufficient intensity in terms of hours, and of sufficient du-ration, to make sustainable changes in a family, and that integrate all of the following activities:

    1. Interactive literacy activities between parents and their children.

    2. Training for parents regarding how to be the primary teacher for their children and full partners in the education of their children.

    3. Parent literacy training that leads to economic self-sufficiency.

    4. An age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life experiences.

  3. INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF — The term ?instructional staff?—

    1. means individuals who have responsibility for teaching children to read; and

    2. includes principals, teachers, supervisors of instruction, librarians, library school media specialists, teachers of academic subjects other than reading, and other individuals who have responsibility for assisting children to learn to read.

  4. READING — The term ?reading? means a complex system of deriving meaning from print that requires all of the following:

    1. The skills and knowledge to understand how phonemes, or speech sounds, are connected to print.

    2. The ability to decode unfamiliar words.

    3. The ability to read fluently.

    4. Sufficient background information and vocabulary to foster reading comprehension.

    5. The development of appropriate active strategies to construct meaning from print.

    6. The development and maintenance of a motivation to read.

  5. SCIENTIFICALLY BASED READING RESEARCH — The term ?scientifically based reading research?—

    1. means the application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge relevant to reading development, reading instruction, and reading difficulties; and

    2. shall include research that—

      1. employs systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment;

      2. involves rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions drawn;

      3. relies on measurements or observational methods that provide valid data across evaluators and observers and across multiple measurements and observations; and

      4. has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparably rigorous, objective, and scientific review.


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[Appendix E. Tutorial Assistance Subgrant Activities] [Table of Contents]