The ongoing cycle of educational reform in America has led policymakers and educational leaders to prioritize test-based results and de-prioritize noncognitive skills, equitable outcomes, and crucial socio-emotional aspects of schooling (Lynch et al., 2009). Despite the equitable goals outlined in previous education policy reforms, intended…

Reading words and developing larger vocabularies are critical parts of reading proficiency, but these checkpoints do not have significance until young students grasp the meaning behind words. While teachers and the school culture can improve early reading proficiency, legislatures and state education agencies can support such efforts by…

This article reports on the student achievement outcomes for third graders in Reading First (RF) schools in Pennsylvania over the five years of implementation for the group as a whole, for disaggregated groups of third graders, and for third graders who received reading instruction in RF schools for one, two, and three years. We also present a…