Nonfiction Curriculum Enhances Reading Skills, Study Finds

There was a recent NY Times article titled: Nonfiction Curriculum Enhanced Reading Skills, Study Finds.  Here is the complete article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/nyregion/nonfiction-curriculum-en...

In this article there are some interesting points:

     * the importance of students having background knowledge in order to be successful in reading comprehension

     * how content knowledge has dropped substantially because of the focus on standardized testing in reading and math

     * balanced literacy improved scale points 2.5 from the average of 0.9

Besides cross-curricular instruction, do you see any other means of making sure students are learning these content-areas and improving reading skills and comprehension? Overall, what are your thoughts about the article?