Predicting First Grade Reading Performance from Kindergarten Response to Tier 1 Instruction.

Many schools are beginning to implement multi-tier response to intervention (RTI) models for the prevention of reading difficulties and to assist in the identification of students with learning disabilities (LD). The present study was part of our larger ongoing longitudinal RTI investigation within the Florida Learning Disabilities Center grant. This study used a longitudinal correlational design, conducted in 7 ethnically and socio-economically diverse schools.

Assessment Data-Informed Guidance to Individualize Kindergarten Reading Instruction: Findings from a Cluster-Randomized Control Field Trial.

The purpose of this cluster-randomized control field trial was to was to examine the extent to which kindergarten teachers could learn a promising instructional strategy, wherein kindergarten reading instruction was differentiated based upon students' ongoing assessments of language and literacy skills and documented child characteristic by instruction (CXI) interactions; and to test the efficacy of this differentiated reading instruction on the reading outcomes of students from culturally diverse backgrounds. The study involved 14 schools and included 23 treatment ( = 305 students) and 21 contrast teacher ( = 251 students). Teachers in the contrast condition received only a baseline professional development that included a researcher-delivered summer day-long workshop on individualized instruction.

The potential of site-specific recombinases as novel reporters in whole-cell biosensors of pollution.

DNA recombinases show some promise as reporters of pollutants providing that appropriate promoters are used and that the apparent dependence of expression on cell density can be solved. Further work is in progress using different recombinases and other promoters to optimize recombinase expression as well as to test these genetic constructs in contaminated environmental samples such as soil and water. It may be that a graded response reflecting pollutant concentration may not be possible.