ABSTRACT
Children who fail to learn on schedule share a number of characteristics, even though they are served by a variety of programs that assume that distinct groups can be identified and that these groups have identifiable and distinct instructional needs (Allington & Johnston, 1989; McGill-Franzen, 1987). Regardless of which categorical instructional support program these children are assigned to (e.g., Chapter 1, special education, migrant education, etc.) the instructional intervention rarely accomplishes a return of the learner to on-schedule reading acquisition. In addition, little evidence is available to suggest that participants in these instructional support programs ever develop into readers who demonstrate adequate abilities to extract meaning from text efficiently and effectively. Even less is available to suggest that the participants develop refined higher order thinking skills, strategies, and abilities.
