Publication Receives International Reading Award

A publication co-authored in the Children’s Learning Institute at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston has received the International Reading Association’s 2006 Albert J. Harris Award.

Published in Reading Research Quarterly, the article reports on a study of the 5-7 percent of students who struggle learning how to read even though they are receiving high quality instruction.

Jason L. Anthony, Ph.D., assistant professor of developmental pediatrics at the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education, or CIRCLE, and Jack M. Fletcher, Ph.D., former professor of pediatrics, Medical School, and co-director of the Center for Academic and Reading Skills, or CARS, now at the University of Houston, co-authored the article along with colleagues from Southern Methodist University, The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston and Florida State University.

They received their award, including a $1,000 prize, May 1 during the International Reading Association’s 51st annual convention in Chicago.

Through “The Effects of Theoretically Different Instruction and Student Characteristics on the Skills of Struggling Readers,” the co-authors demonstrate the importance of providing struggling first-grade readers with high quality classroom reading instruction and supplementary intervention. While the combined services did not eliminate struggling readers altogether, more at-risk students achieved normal reading status when provided one of the supplementary interventions than when only provided classroom instruction.

The findings do not support the notion that there is “one best approach.” Instead, the award-winning researchers noted, “Time is better devoted to determining how to overcome the great challenges that exist in getting effective interventions placed into schools. Likewise, our findings support the idea that schools can be allowed to choose from among supplementary interventions that are proven effective and that best fit personal philosophies and personnel talents.”