Coaching is an increasingly used professional development approach involving ongoing, individualized teacher-coach exchanges hypothesized to drive immediate changes in teachers' practices with students. Examining this hypothesis, the present study quantifies marginal changes after individual coaching cycles in a set of commonly considered,…

This simulation study examines the characteristics of the Explanatory Item Response Model (EIRM) when estimating treatment effects when compared to classical test theory (CTT) sum and mean scores and item response theory (IRT)-based theta scores. Results show that the EIRM and IRT theta scores provide generally equivalent bias and false positive…

The purpose of this study was to understand how a school-based personalized learning approach can help improve literacy achievement among middle grades students in a rural area. This study followed two cohorts of schools serving students in grades 6-8 in northeast Tennessee for one year each (2018-19 and 2021-22), to assess student and school…

Literacy is a critically important and contemporary issue for educators, scientists, and politicians. Efforts to overcome the challenges associated with illiteracy, and the subsequent development of literate societies, are closely related to those of poverty reduction and sustainable human development. In this paper, the authors examine literacy…

Many assume that cognitive and linguistic processes, such as semantic knowledge (SK) and self-regulation (SR), subserve learned skills like reading. However, complex models of interacting and bootstrapping effects of SK, SR, instruction, and reading hypothesize reciprocal effects. Testing this "lattice" model with children (n = 852)…

Research Findings: This study reports outcomes from a randomized, controlled trial of an emergent literacy intervention for prekindergarten children at-risk for reading failure. Children (N = 2219) in 114 preschools and childcare centers were screened for eligibility in fall. Children who scored at-risk (n = 476) were randomized to fall or spring…

This case describes a current evaluation of an educational intervention to help disadvantaged children catch up in literacy at around the time they transfer to their senior school. The evaluation is based on a randomised controlled trial design, which the case explains is the most appropriate for testing or establishing a causal claim. The case…

In this article, we describe a model for reading engagement that emerged from interviews with high school students who participated in a yearlong supplemental intervention course. The course focused on motivation, strategies, content learning, and communication within the context of themed instruction. We sought to ascertain instructional factors,…

Low reading skills constitute a serious achievement problem. Although there are remedial support in schools, between 2% and 6% of the student population continues to show persistent reading difficulties despite intensive intervention. The research problem in this study addressed the lack of effective reading interventions for students who were in…

It is essential for middle school leaders to develop and promote school-wide literacy models, organizational structures that have a significant impact on the learning environment for all students in their building. However, school-wide literacy models can be difficult to implement and sustain over time. Drawing from an Office of Special Education…

Pratham's "Read India" initiative is a large-scale intervention to improve basic learning and arithmetic among children in primary school. It was started almost 10 years ago and has evolved considerably over time. Currently, this initiative uses two strategies. The first strategy is to work directly with village communities and local…

Background: For a majority of the world's children, despite substantial increases in primary school enrollment, academic learning is neither occurring at expected rates nor supplying the basic foundational skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century. The significant lag in academic achievement tells us that simply making formal education…

Preschool teachers' literacy instruction during classroom activity is important to young children's early development of literacy skills. The present study employed repeated measure ANOVAs to examine the dimensions of 42 Head Start teachers' literacy instruction (i.e., literacy content, teaching process, and lexical characteristics) during large…

The author describes an interactive intervention strategy to assist pre-service teachers in developing reflective practices in an undergraduate literacy course. The goal of the study was to encourage deeper analysis rather than purely descriptive summaries of field placements in teacher candidates' written reflections, so pre-service teachers may…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe teaching actions--embedded in the "Science Writing Heuristic" approach, a systematic teaching approach that integrates literacy instruction and argument-based inquiry learning of science--supportive of the cross-disciplinary literacy expectations necessary to compete in the 21st…