NCJ Number
141324
Date Published
1993
Length
73 pages
Annotation
Based on a re-examination of the research literature and interviews with reading instructors who teach juvenile offenders in correctional institutions in five States, this study tested the hypothesis that research-based reading instruction can be used to reduce recidivism and increase employment opportunity for incarcerated juvenile offenders.
Abstract
The research found that reading failure is most likely a cause, not just a correlate, for the frustration that can and does result in delinquent behavior. An inordinately high percentage of juvenile wards are unable to decipher accurately and fluently and write legibly and grammatically what they can talk about and aurally comprehend; a high percentage of wards are diagnosed learning-disabled, with no evidence to indicate any neurological abnormalities. Handicapped readers are not receiving the type of instruction recommended by experimental research; and reading teachers, as a result of preservice reading methods courses, have been denied a working knowledge of the reading programs and methods of instruction that are most successful in preventing reading failure as well as meeting the needs of handicapped readers. So as to remove the barriers to improved reading instruction and allow the handicapped readers to become proficient readers in the shortest time possible, it will be necessary to provide reading teachers with the opportunity to acquire a knowledge of the alphabetic principles that govern English spelling and become confident in using instructional programs that incorporate intensive, systematic phonics methods. Inservice training must come from private-sector literacy providers, because departments, schools, and colleges of education have not provided this type of instruction. a 38-item annotated reference list