Sources of Reading Research

Regional education labs

The U.S. Department of Education funds a system of ten organizations that provide technical assistance to the states in its region. Each regional laboratory's web site offers a wealth of information.

• REL Appalachia (Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia) at The CNA Corporation
• REL Central (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming) at Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL)
• REL Mid-Atlantic (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C.) at Pennsylvania State University
• REL Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin) at Learning Point Associates
• REL Northeast & Islands (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virgin Islands) at Education Development Center
• REL Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington) at Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL)
• REL Pacific (American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, Palau) at Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL)
• REL Southeast (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina) at SERVE Center, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• REL Southwest (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas) at Edvance Research, Inc.
• REL West (Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah) at WestEd

Education journals

The following are journals that publish articles and research related to reading issues. The organization that publishes each journal is indicated in parentheses.

• Action in Teacher Education (Association of Teacher Educators)
• American Educational Research Journal (American Educational Research Association)
• Child Development (Society for Research in Child Development)
• Cognitive Development
• Comparative Education Review (Comparative and International Education Society)
• Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood
• Early Childhood Research Quarterly (National Association for the Education of Young Children)
• Early Childhood Education Journal
• Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (American Educational Research Association)
• Educational Researcher (American Educational Research Association)
• English Journal (National Council of Teachers of English)
• Equity and Excellence in Education
• Exceptional Children (Council for Exceptional Children)
• Harvard Educational Review (Harvard Graduate School of Education)
• International Journal of Educational Research
• Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (International Reading Association)
• Journal of Curriculum and Supervision (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)
• Journal of Developmental Education (National Center for Developmental Education)
• Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education (National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators)
• Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics (American Educational Research Association)
• Journal of Educational Measurement (National Council on Measurement in Education)
• Journal of Educational Psychology (American Psychological Association)
• Journal of Educational Research
• Journal of Experimental Education
• Journal of Literacy Research (National Reading Conference)
• Journal of Research in Childhood Education (Association for Childhood Education International)
• Journal of Teacher Education (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education)
• Language Arts (National Council of Teachers of English)
• Language Learning
• Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: Journal of Developmental Psychology
• Phi Delta Kappan
• Reading Research Quarterly (International Reading Association)
• Research in Developmental Disabilities
• Review of Educational Research (American Educational Research Association)
• Review of Research in Education (American Educational Research Association)
• Studies in Educational Evaluation
• Teachers College Record (Teachers College, Columbia University)
• Teacher Education and Special Education
• Teacher Education Quarterly
• Teaching Exceptional Children (Council for Exceptional Children)
• The Reading Teacher (International Reading Association)
• Thinking Classroom (International Reading Association)
• Urban Education
• Young Children (National Association for the Education of Young Children)

Associations

The web sites, publications, and conferences of the following associations offer updated research in reading and related eduation issues. Other associations can be found in our Reading Resources section.

• American Educational Research Association
• American Federation of Teachers
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
• Council for Exceptional Children
• International Dyslexia Association
• International Reading Association
• National Association for Bilingual Education
• National Association for the Education of Young Children
• National Association of Elementary School Principals
• National Association of School Psychologists
• National Association for State Directors of Special Education
• The National Council of Teachers of English
• National Education Association
• National Reading Conference

Databases

The following databases are rich sources of usually free reading research.

• ERIC – Education Resources Information Center
• The Partnership for Reading, National Institute for Literacy
• The Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication (Indiana University School of Education)

Other databases require university affiliation or allow individual access for a fee. These include:

• PsycINFO

  The main PsycINFO database contains almost 2 million references to psychological literature from the 1800s-present, and includes journal articles, books, book chapters, technical reports, and dissertations.

• OVID

  This database provides citations and abstracts for education-related journals and magazine articles, and also searches journals from other disciplines.

• LexisNexis

  Use this database to locate fulltext newspaper articles on your subject.

• Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts (CSA)

  This database covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Complete coverage is also given to various fields of linguistics including descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical, and geographical linguistics. (Dates covered: 1973 - present)

• Mental Measurements Yearbook

  This database includes more than 2,200 commercially-available tests in categories such as personality, developmental, behavioral assessment, neuropsychological, achievement, intelligence and aptitude, educational, speech and hearing, and sensory motor.