The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of the "Phonics First"® program within one district to inform district level curriculum team decisions and program planning moving forward. As a level 4 Directed State Support district, the studied district was looking for ways to close the achievement gap and raise overall…

The research is based on the phenomenological study for the district leaders' decision-making on literacy curriculum programs for English Language Learners. The participants of the study are superintendents or district leaders that have a large ENL population they serve. The sampling technique followed was purposeful sampling of Long Island…

The "Examining Implementation and Outcomes of the Project On-Track High-Dosage Literacy Tutoring Program" study describes the characteristics of students who participated in a full year of Project On-Track, a high-dosage, small-group literacy tutoring program for students in grade 1-3. Its online adaptive program, Amplify Reading, groups…

Conducting classroom-based educational research trials is important for establishing the efficacy and effectiveness of specific instructional interventions. Such endeavours, however, are challenging to implement. This was made evident during a recent independent evaluation of the efficacy of the MiniLit program, wherein various difficulties…

In May 2016 an Invitational Symposium on the Reading for Understanding (RfU) Initiative was held in Alexandria, Virginia. Co-hosted by ETS and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the symposium brought together 160 state and local education leaders to examine the results of the RfU initiative. The goal of the U.S. Department of…

The purpose of this study was to explore the operations of a sample of university-based reading clinics in order to better understand their functions and practices and to inform the planning for the authors' own clinic. This study was carried out in two phases. In Phase I, the authors conducted Internet searches and contacted knowledgeable…

Background: Efficacy trials in education often possess a motivating theory of change: how and why should the desired improvement in outcomes occur as a consequence of the intervention? In scenarios with repeated measurements, certain subgroups may be more or less likely to manifest a treatment effect; the theory of change (TOC) provides guidance…

The Early Interactive Reading Software Program encourages literacy growth and achievement in students in grades K-3. The program addresses early reading through the use of computer-based literacy software which provides individualized instruction designed to supplement students' classroom learning. During the 2019-2020 school year, these software…

This research explored the biliteracy experiences of three kohanga reo children as they started school in one of three school settings: a bilingual unit, a mainstream classroom, and kura kaupapa Maori. A Kaupapa Maori approach underpinned this research and guided the case study methodology employed. The children's literacy experiences were…

California's school system is under tremendous long-run fiscal pressure; allocating resources efficiently is therefore paramount. Economic analysis--making sure districts and schools are spending their budgets wisely--is the method used to identify effectiveness and efficiency. This method responds to the question educational professionals face:…

This paper uses recent evidence from international early grade reading programs to provide guidance about how best to create appropriate targets and more effectively identify improved program outcomes. Recent results show that World Bank and US Agency for International Development-funded large-scale international education interventions in low-…

The articles in this special issue discuss efforts to improve academic reading outcomes for students and ways to achieve high implementation fidelity of promising strategies. At times the authors discuss if--and how--strong fidelity is associated with strong outcomes and potentially even impacts (the difference between program and control group…

As implementation of multi-tiered systems of support becomes common practice across the nation, practitioners continue to need strategies for intensifying interventions and supports for the subset of students who fail to make adequate progress despite strong programs at Tiers 1 and 2. Experts recommend making several changes to the structure and…

Within the realm of school-based interventions, implementation integrity is important for practical, legal, and ethical purposes. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that proper monitoring of implementation integrity is often absent from both research and practice. School psychology practitioners and researchers have reported that a major barrier to…

The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) requires that decisions about a student's eligibility for special education services be based on more than one procedure. Futhermore, the reauthorization of IDEA in 2004, known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), indicated that traditional assessments are not required…