Although research provides ample evidence of teaching methods that facilitate students' learning of specific word meanings, the potential of instruction to impact students' general vocabulary knowledge has remained an unanswered question. This article reports on a three-year formative experiment that developed, implemented, and tested a long-term,…

We investigate the impact of a relatively brief cross-curricular intervention, Word Generation, on middle school students' development of taught academic vocabulary. Students (n = 8382) in forty-four middle schools in three urban districts were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Treatment teachers implemented the program with…

The study reviewed in this paper examined the effects of the instructional practice "Promoting Acceleration of Comprehension and Content Through Text" ("PACT"), an approach that aims to improve social studies content knowledge and reading comprehension. This study took place in two middle schools in a near-urban district in…

This study describes an evaluation of a read aloud intervention to improve comprehension and vocabulary of first-grade students. Twelve teachers were randomly assigned to an intervention or comparison condition. The study lasted 19 weeks, and the intervention focused on the systematic use of narrative and expository texts and dialogic interactions…

Achieve3000 publishes a number of online literacy programs that differentiate lessons and activities based on student performance. Magnolia Consulting--an independent, third party evaluation firm--assessed Achieve3000 Solutions' impact on student learning during the 2014-15 school year. The researchers used a randomized control trial, where…

"Reading Recovery[R]" is a short-term intervention that provides one-on-one tutoring to first-grade students who are struggling in reading and writing. The supplementary program aims to promote literacy skills and foster the development of reading and writing strategies by tailoring individualized lessons to each student. Tutoring is…

The Instant Word Notebook study was a program evaluation completed by two educators who saw a need for an instructional tool to teach and assess Instant Words. In order to address reading deficits of students in first and second grades, teachers were expected to teach Instant Words. Unfortunately, teachers did not have a systematic process to…

This article describes a randomized controlled trial conducted to evaluate the effects of an intensive, individualized, Tier 3 reading intervention for second grade students who had previously experienced inadequate response to quality first grade classroom reading instruction (Tier 1) and supplemental small-group intervention (Tier 2). Also…

In October 2009, The New York State Education Department (NYSED), in partnership with the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), was granted funding as part of the "Striving Readers Project" to address the literacy needs of adolescent struggling readers early in middle school. The goal of the project was to implement and examine…

In this study, a group of first graders who had attended full-year Head Start were compared cognitively to a group of first graders who had been eligible for Head Start but did not attend. Results of the study may be suspect because the children who participated in Head Start were selected from the most deprived of those eligible; therefore study…

After the first year, funding for the Reading Recovery program in the Muscogee County School District in Georgia was to be contingent upon getting results that would document the success of Reading Recovery in the system. The following measures were used for program evaluation: An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (Clay, 1993); Iowa…

The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of a "packaged" language development program, on the general cognitive, intellectual, and language development of preschool children. A selected basic language program (Buchanan Language Readiness Program) and supplementary materials (other language programs), were used to…

An individualized reading program designed to improve pupils' attitudes toward reading is evaluated. A classroom was equipped with paperback novels chosen by the students, and an informal reading environment was provided. Reading skills lessons and remedial activities were administered when necessary. Test results indicated that pupils made…

This report evaluates the effectiveness of a reading program known as "The Reading Renaissance/Accelerated Reader Program" as implemented at Gardner Middle School in San Manuel, Arizona, during the period of April 1997 to April 1998. Before the program was implemented, students were achieving at a low level in reading. Students in the…

Objectives of this study were (1) to determine the effect of preschool experience on the personal and social adjustment and school readiness and achievement of the deprived child, (2) to determine what combination of age at intervention and treatment intensity was most effective, and (3) to assess the effects of parent involvement on the child's…