Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) Ready to Learn project, "Hero Elementary," has an emphasis on reaching Latino communities and supporting the needs of children with disabilities. The project embeds the expectations of kindergarten to 2nd grade science standards into a series of…

This study examines the effectiveness of minimally trained tutors providing a highly structured tutoring intervention for struggling readers. We screened students in Grades K-6 for participation in an after-school tutoring program. We randomly assigned those students not meeting the benchmark on a reading screening measure to either a tutoring…

In this quasi-experimental study, we assessed the promise of Word Generation, a research-based academic vocabulary program, on improving the reading achievement outcomes of struggling sixth-grade readers in an after-school small group instructional setting. After 34 hours of academic vocabulary instruction, we compared the performance of a…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation has created pressure for districts to improve their students' proficiency levels on state tests. Districts that fail to meet their academic targets for 3 years must use their Title I funds to pay for supplemental education services (SES) that provide tutoring or other academic instruction. Many…

This study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Policy Studies Associates, Inc. finds that regular participation in high-quality afterschool programs is linked to significant gains in standardized test scores and work habits as well as reductions in behavior problems among disadvantaged…