State education leaders across the country are rightly prioritizing efforts to improve elementary student reading outcomes. However, too often these initiatives do not focus enough on the key component to strong implementation and long-term sustainability: effective teachers. Only when state leaders implement a literacy strategy that prioritizes…

This independent quasi-experimental study conducted by WestEd reported that Lalilo had a large significant positive impact on students' oral reading fluency skills. This is an important outcome because fluency is both a critical component of literacy and a strong predictor of later reading success. Effects were particularly strong for students…

Over the past eight years, through examinations of school-administered reading assessments, Springboard has demonstrated internally that the average Springboard Summer scholar improves in reading during the program. Several partner school districts have compared Springboard scholars to their non-participating counterparts and found that, on…

Chicago Public Schools is working to improve early literacy outcomes through a multiyear professional development initiative for preK-2 teachers. This initiative--the P-2 Balanced Literacy Initiative--aims to improve literacy instruction by training teachers to balance systematic foundational skills instruction with reading and writing instruction…

This report presents second year information about the degree to which children and young people in Middlesbrough enjoy reading and writing, how often then engage in reading and writing, what types of materials they read and write and how they feel about reading and writing. It also outlines information about their confidence in their own…

The San Diego Unified School District Striving Readers Project aims to work within the research base on adolescent literacy to conceptualize, describe and apply the elements of effective teaching and professional development with the goal of increasing the literacy achievement of struggling adolescent readers. Since the inception of the Striving…

Over the past decade, Americans have become increasingly concerned about the high numbers--and costs--of high school dropouts. The time is now to build a similar consensus around this less-recognized but equally urgent fact: The pool from which employers, colleges, and the military draw is too small, and still shrinking, because millions of…

State education departments, in discussions with Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast, identified low reading achievement as a critical issue for their students and expressed an interest in identifying effective strategies to promote the foundational skills in young students that might improve reading achievement. The Mississippi…

The purpose of the study was to determine the longitudinal effects of a Title I reading component on students in grades two through five from 1976 through 1980. The following questions were considered in the analysis of performance among reading participants: (1) Do the same students remain in Title I year after year? (2) Do students who…

Supported by the Corporation for National Service, AmeriCorps' members serve with local and national organizations to meet community needs while earning education awards to help finance college or training. This report is the final product of the "AmeriCorps Tutoring Outcomes Study" of the AmeriCorps State/National Literacy Programs. The…

This report, which is anchored in ACT data, focuses on steps for improving the reading skills of students attending this nation's high schools. The conclusions reported are based both on what ACT test scores inform about the reading skills of ACT-tested high school students who graduated in 2005 and trends derived from students who have taken the…

The goal of the High School Reading and Communication Skills Component of the Detroit school desegregation plan was to improve students' reading and communication skills. The program was an integral part of the English curriculum and employed instruction focused upon specific objectives at each grade level. Support services were provided in each…

Including the Spring 1999 reading data from all public elementary schools in Louisiana containing first, second, and third grades, this report provides the results of the analysis of the Developmental Reading Assessment data that measured the reading abilities of all students in Louisiana. Louisiana is committed to improving students' reading…

The goal of the Elementary and Middle School Readinq and Communication Skills Component of the Detroit School desegregation plan was to improve students' reading achievement. The major facet of the program was a reading instruction management system called the Detroit Objective-Referenced Tests System (DORT). DORT is a diagnostic-prescriptive…

In 1998, the British Government introduced the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) in all state primary schools (encompassing students aged 5-11) in England in a bid to raise literacy standards. A year earlier, 13 local education authorities were involved in the piloting of the project, including the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The first Newcastle…