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 Funding for these studies of the Academic Literacy course at Thurgood Marshall High School was provided by The Stuart Foundations, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the San Francisco Foundation. Three linked studies documented outcomes of a 9th grade course designed to accelerate academic literacy skills and engagement for a broad range of urban students in one San Francisco public high school. The course design incorporated a Reading Apprenticeship® instructional approach in three thematic content-based curriculum units. Students' growing independence as readers was emphasized throughout the course. Initial Study SLI research staff collected standardized measures from the entire ninth grade and collected a broader set of qualitative measures in two of the four Academic Literacy teachers' classrooms, selecting a subset of students in these classrooms for closer study.They found promising quantitative and qualitative results that applied across all ethnic groups and across all the classrooms of the teachers who taught the course. Students gained an average of two years growth in seven months of instruction measured on a standardized reading comprehension test, while engaging in rigorous, academic work rather than remediation focused on basic skills. Changes in students' behavior and attitudes reflected significant changes related to literacy behaviors and identity. For example, in a June 1997 survey, students reported reading twice the number of books they had read in the previous year. In addition, survey results indicated students' growing understanding of comprehension as the goal of reading and their increasing use of specific reading comprehension strategies. 10th Grade Follow-Up Study A follow-up study in the 1997-1998 school year showed that the Academic Literacy students, now in tenth grade, gained over a year of growth at their independent reading level, even though they were not enrolled in a course focused on reading that year. These findings suggest that the students were given a jump start in the ninth grade that continued to accelerate their reading growth into the tenth grade. Replication Study A study was conducted with a new set of teachers and 9th grade Academic Literacy students in the following academic year, with similar results to those in the initial study. Read the full study (PDF) Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | This site and its contents copyright WestEd 1995-2009. All rights reserved. |
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