Support for this research is provided by the National Center for Education Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Independent research agencies MDRC and AIR are conducting the evaluation.
Based on the recommendations of an independent panel of experts on adolescent literacy, the U.S. Department of Education has funded research to understand how SLI’s Academic Literacy course and a University of Kansas reading intervention program may boost the reading achievement of a large population of ninth grade students — those whose reading test scores are two to four years below grade level.
Selection of the two programs was based on criteria including how well a program motivates adolescents to read, whether there is research-based evidence of the program’s effectiveness, and whether the program is comprehensive and linked to content-area reading.
Thirty-two high schools in eight districts are participating in the three-year, group-randomized experimental study. Among the questions to be answered by the research:
- What are the effects of the interventions on students’ reading skills and other academic outcomes such as attendance, persistence in school, course-taking patterns, and performance on high stakes assessments?
- For which subgroups of students are the interventions most effective?
- What factors appear to account for the impact (or lack of impact) on reading achievement and other outcomes?
- What factors promote or impede successful implementation?
The participating schools all feature academies or small learning communities to organize their ninth grade and have a documented need for supplemental literacy programs. Schools have been randomly assigned to one of the two interventions. In each school for each of two years (2005-06 and 2006-07), 100 freshmen who read two to four years below grade level are randomly assigned to the intervention course or to a study hall or elective. All participating students are also enrolled in a regular English language arts course.
Literacy teachers implement the same randomly assigned intervention in successive years, receiving initial professional development in the summer of 2005, follow-up support during the school year, reinforcement in the summer of 2006, and continuing support during the rest of 2006-07.
Study findings are scheduled to be reported in December 2006, December 2007, and May 2008, including implementation findings in 2006 and 2007; cohort one findings in 2006, 2007, and 2008; and cohort two findings in 2007 and 2008.
