In 2009, Vanderbilt University's Peabody Research Institute, in coordination with the Tennessee Department of Education's Division of Curriculum and Instruction, initiated a rigorous, independent evaluation of the state's Voluntary Prekindergarten program (TN- VPK). TN-VPK is a full-day prekindergarten program for four-year-old children expected…

This report states that in 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 in Maine the number of Reading Recovery programs provided increased by 5% and 11% respectively, and that more than half of all Reading Recovery[R] students successfully completed the program. The report also states that students who successfully completed Reading Recovery[R] continued to improve…

The purpose of this phase of the evaluation of the Mississippi Kindergarten Program (MKP) was to determine if 1987-88 kindergarten students made significant progress toward the attainment of motor skills normally performed by 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children. A secondary purpose was to determine if the program enhanced physical growth among…

This paper describes the experiences of Colorado Springs School District Eleven in using multiple measures to determine if third graders were reading at "grade level." The use of multiple measures may be threatened by the rapidly increasing pressures about assessment and accountability in Colorado that teachers are beginning to feel that…

Designed to accompany a slide series called "Understanding Your Grade 3 California Assessment Program (CAP) Report," this package is the second in a series that has been produced in conjunction with the new third grade test. The slide series describes the contents of the Survey of Basic Skills report that contains respective school's…

This review of a previous article (TM 503 836), concludes that: (1) the evaluation methodology was straightforward; (2) simpler data analysis would have yielded the same conclusions; and (3) exclusion of many experimental schools from data analysis and use of post hoc matching and covariance produced misleading results. (CP)

An independent statewide study of 4,735 elementary schools, conducted after three years of the Early Childhood Education Program (ECE) in California, indicates that ECE schools have lower reading scores in grades 2 and 3 when compared to non-ECE schools. Five potential causes for this discrepancy are discussed. (CP)

Schools in California's Early Childhood Education Program (ECE) have lower reading achievement than non-ECE schools; furthermore, schools which are both ECE and Title I score below all others. Three alternative policies are discussed: (1) continued expansion; (2) gradual termination; and (3) stable funding, explaining score discrepancies, and…

Defining the overall objective of bilingual education to be the integration of the child into the mainstream of American life while maintaining audiolingual skills in both English and the native language without losing certain aspects of the subculture, this report summarizes information from 19 school districts involved in special English classes…

A cornerstone of Mississippi's 1982 Education Reform Act, the Assistant Reading Instructor Program sought to improve basic skills acquisition by placing assistant reading instructors in primary grades. The program has not been effective in meeting its objectives. On standardized tests, students who had assistant reading instructors in the primary…

It is difficult to base evaluations on concepts irrelevant to state policy making. Evaluation of a multiproject program requires both time and differentiation of method. Data from the California Early Childhood Program illustrate process variables for program component analysis, and research questions for intraprogram comparison. (CP)

Reading Recovery is an early intervention program that helps low-achieving first-grade children to become independent readers who need no further remediation. Reading Recovery was introduced by Marie M. Clay who, in the mid 1970s, developed procedures with teachers and tested the program in New Zealand. In 1984, the success of the program in New…

Presenting clear and concise guidelines for coordinators/trainers involved in the planning and implementation of orientation sessions for teachers and assistant teachers is the purpose of this manual. Beginning with introductory material concerning the purpose and goals of the reading improvement program and the roles served by assistant teachers,…

As part of program evaluation for the Reading Recovery (RR) program in Maine, parents, classroom teachers, administrators, and RR teachers responded to open-ended survey questions, and they rated the program along dimensions of quality. This report summarizes and synthesizes the responses received across the state of Maine to the surveys…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of reduced class size on achievement in the primary grades. Scores on a variety of tests were used to compare the achievement of groups of primary students who had been enrolled in Indiana's Project Primetime with the achievement of cohort groups who had received instruction in larger classes…