The Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) Program was developed by integrating 8 evidence-based fluency-building instructional strategies into a structured program that can be feasibly implemented by educators. The HELPS Program has been shown in previous research to significantly improve elementary-aged students' reading abilities, but the effects of HELPS have not been evaluated with an important and increasing sub-population of U.S. students, English language learners (ELLs). As such, the purpose of this control group comparison study was to evaluate HELPS with Latino ELLs. Findings showed that ELLs who received HELPS scored significantly higher than the control group on standardized measures of fluency and comprehension. Although this study represents an initial attempt to understand the effects of HELPS with ELLs, the findings have implications for educators and researchers who work with ELLs.

The authors examined the benefits of video modeling to teach a unique vocational skill set to an adolescent and two young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Video modeling was used to teach skills necessary to entertain customers and promote products in a retail setting while wearing a WalkAround® costume. The three participants were observed before and after watching a video model perform the skills in the costume in scripted and naturalistic scenes. Data can be interpreted to conclude that all participants learned to use the skills in combination or sequence after watching the video model. The skills generalized to an actual job opportunity. The participants reported they enjoyed the work, and comments from supervisors were positive. Implications are discussed.

A grade level of reading material is commonly estimated using one or more readability formulas, which purport to measure text difficulty based on specified text characteristics. However, there is limited direction for teachers and publishers regarding which readability formulas (if any) are appropriate indicators of actual text difficulty. Because oral reading fluency (ORF) is considered one primary indicator of an elementary aged student's overall reading ability, the purpose of this study was to assess the link between leveled reading passages and students’ actual ORF rates. ORF rates of 360 elementary‐aged students were used to determine whether reading passages at varying grade levels are, as would be predicted by readability levels, more or less difficult for students to read. Results showed that a small number of readability formulas were fairly good indicators of text, but this was only true at particular grade levels. Additionally, most of the readability formulas were more accurate for higher ability readers. One implication of the findings suggests that teachers should be cautious when making instructional decisions based on purported “grade‐leveled” text, and educational researchers and practitioners should strive to assess difficulty of text materials beyond simply using a readability formula.