This study aimed to evaluate the students' efficacy in literacy and numeracy skills in commerce subjects in secondary schools in Fiji. Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were used to gather relevant data. The findings show that literacy and numeracy skills are essential in commerce subjects, as students require basic literacy…

Due in part to parent advocacy, Texas passed legislation and released guidelines to support identification and instruction for students with dyslexia, and their families. In alignment with state guidelines, since January 2020, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) implemented an additional instructional intervention using Reading by…

This report examines the implementation of the Securing Opportunities for Academic Recovery (SOAR) program that operated during the summer of 2020 at 31 schools. The program was designed to mitigate academic deficits that resulted from the shutdown of schools due to the Coronavirus pandemic. SOAR was implemented in two phases: Recovery and Regain.…

This five-year study focused on school processes that promoted the scaling-up of a high school academic literacy framework, Reading Apprenticeship, developed by WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI). Implementing an innovative strategy for scaling-up involving school-based cross-disciplinary teacher teams, SLI brought the framework to 274…

This study uses a regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impact of seventh-grade interventions delivered by 25 schools on the reading and school engagement outcomes of struggling readers. Students in participating schools were assigned to intervention (n = 1,495) or comparison (n = 4,397) conditions, based on their state reading…

We report on the scaling up of a high school content literacy framework, Reading Apprenticeship, over a period of four years as part of the independent evaluation of an Investing in Innovation grant from the U.S. Department of Education to WestEd's Strategic Literacy Institute (SLI). Our goal was to understand the school processes that support…

One quality indicator of intervention research is the extent to which the intervention has a high degree of social validity, or practicality. In this study, I drew on Wolf's framework for social validity and used qualitative methods to ascertain five middle schoolteachers' perceptions of the social validity of System 44®--a phonics-based reading…

As education policy in the U.S. focuses increasingly on the quality of classroom instruction, there is a growing need to identify valid constructs and develop reliable tools that measure student opportunities to learn academic knowledge and skills. The purpose of this study is to examine the relative contributions of two different classroom…

In this article, we explore the association between students' value of reading and their behavior during a sustained silent reading (SSR) period, and their attitudes toward SSR and reading leisure books. 362 secondary students participated in this study and data were collected by means of a questionnaire. The results showed that more students in…

This brief describes an evaluation of academic intervention supports available to high school students in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) during the 2012-2013 school year. A website review identified information about academic supports available to students or parents within each high school's web pages. A survey of school staff gathered…

This study aimed to investigate the potential of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program to positively impact student scores on the English-Language Arts California Standards Test (CST). The degree of attention placed on student reading achievement and improvement in high-stakes student standardized test scores in the state of California, as well as…

The public is deeply concerned that students in urban settings are not achieving at high levels. Over the past twenty years, large urban districts have attempted to restructure massive school systems using educational policymaking processes that have focused on school structures, standards-driven curriculum, and test-based accountability measures.…

FAME is an acronym for a four-course program titled Foundations, Adventures, Mastery, and Explorations. Reading Is FAME is a research-based, developmental reading program for adolescents reading below grade level. The program incorporates a series of four courses designed for students in grades 7-12. The FAME curriculum helps students by…

This report summarizes evaluation results of the AISD state-funded Optional Extended Year Program for 2002-2003.

Close to 1,100 people attended the 55th Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, Florida from November 30-December 3, 2005. A record number of proposals were submitted this year (548), with 392 papers, symposia, and round tables accepted. This year's conference theme was inclusiveness and synthesis…