Increasing Student Achievement School-wide Through Reading Apprenticeship®
The Strategic Literacy Initiative's professional development work in the greater Bay Area has provided data from two schools that have been working over a number of years to implement Reading Apprenticeship® school-wide. These schools, identified by the California Department of Education as academically underperforming schools, have documented rising Academic Performance Indices (API) that they attribute to this work in Reading Apprenticeship. Both of these school-level cases offer powerful models of school-wide, systemic change that proceeds from within through the agency of teachers in partnership with supportive administrators.
Dixon High School, Dixon Unified School District
School Characteristics (from 2000 report):
Latino students - 42%; white students - 52%; participants in free or reduced-price lunch - 25%; English language learners - 19%
History with SLI
Dixon High School sent a team to SLI's first year network professional development series in 2000 - 2001, sponsored by the STARSS demonstration grant from the California Department of Education to Bay Region IV County Offices of Education. The team was a cross-curricular team and, significantly for the development of this work at the school, included the school principal. An increasing Academic Performance Index (API) for Dixon High School over the past several years is shown in graph form below.
Westlake Middle School, Oakland Unified School District
School Characteristics (from 1999, 2000 reports):
African American students - 43%; Asian students - 33%; Latino students - 15%; participants in free or reduced-price lunches - 61%; English language learners - 43%
History with Reading Apprenticeship
A team of teacher leaders and administrators from Westlake came to SLI's first National Institute in Reading Apprenticeship® in the summer of 2000. Over the next three years, Westlake continued to be involved in SLI professional development. The work to embed Reading Apprenticeship® across the curriculum is ongoing. The graph below shows Westlake Middle School's improving Academic Performance Index scores over the past several years.
