The ultra-strict What Works Clearinghouse, which seemed like such a good idea 10 years ago, has issued a new statement about efficacy of another early education program, Ready, Set, Leap™, reporting that it does not have “discernible effects on oral language, print knowledge, phonological processing, early reading/writing skills, and math.”
Here’s how the vendor’s Web site describes Ready, Set, Leap™”
This comprehensive prekindergarten curriculum provides a full year of instruction and incorporates academic, music, visual arts, and social/emotional development skills to address the needs of all students.
Continue reading ‘Ready, Set, Leap may not’
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The Reading First Federal Advisory Committee has prepared a document entitled “Response to the Reading First Impact Study Interim Report” and has sent it to US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. It should be appearing in the next few days for public download on the Web page that reports the committee’s actions.
This is the report that I described in a post last May and about which I had another post 5 May.
Reminder: I am a member of the Reading First federal advisory committee. I am not, however, speaking for the committee, my fellow panelists, nor the US Department of Education here. Note, however, that the committee publicly endorsed this document in a meeting held last week.
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The US What Works Clearinghouse recently released a new publication summarizing research about teaching literacy skills to adolescents.
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) invites you to look at our newest practice guide, Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices.
This guide provides five specific recommendations to improve literacy among adolescents in the upper elementary, middle, and high school grades.
Designed for teachers and other personnel who have direct contact with students, the guide presents strategies that have the strongest research support and are appropriate for use with adolescents.
Even though I’m a bit wary of the WWC analyses these days, this document appears to have been reasonably thoughtfully done. Here’s a link to download the pdf of the document.
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The Best Evidence Encyclopedia made new reviews available recently.
Upper Elementary Reading Program Reviews Now Available
What reading programs have been proven to help students in grades 2-5 succeed? To find out, read this review. It summarizes the evidence on four types of programs that are designed to improve the reading achievement of students in grades 2-5, including:
Reading Curricula, including core reading textbooks such as Reading Street and Open Court, as well as supplementary texts like Read Naturally and Fluency Formula
Computer-Assisted Instruction, such as Jostens/Compass Learning and Accelerated Reader
Instructional Process Programs, such as cooperative learning and classroom management and motivation programs
Combined Curriculum and Instructional Process Programs, such as Direct Instruction, Wilson Reading, and Project Read
Obtain a copy of the full report (PDF) or the summary version.
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The Institute for Literacy and Learning is offering an outstanding series of presentations over the next few months. Randy Sprick, Sharon Vaughn, Jan Hasbrouck, Rollanda O’Connor, Deb Glaser, Patricia Mathes, and Lucy Hart-Paulson will present free, on-line chats about discipline, reading, assessment in response-to-instruction models, matching interventions to students’ needs, professional development, early language and literacy, and more.
Continue reading ‘Up-coming ILL sessions’
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Shep Barbash published “Looking Beyond the Reading First Controversy” in Education Next, the quarterly journal of the Hoover Institute that examines issues related to US education reform. Although he probably wrote his piece before the recent release of the interim version of the study examining the impact of Reading First, Mr. Barbash makes a spirited argument for the benefits of Reading First. Here’s his lead:
“Reading First is the most effective federal program in history.” So reads the opening line of a report that Alabama superintendent of education Joseph Morton sent to his congressional delegation last June, in which he recounts how the program has raised reading achievement for poor students in his charge. Morton’s view is shared by leaders in many other states, where thousands of Reading First elementary schools have reported unprecedented progress closing the “literacy gap” among the poor.
Continue reading ‘More RF’
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Over on EdBizBuzz, one of the Ed Week blogs, Marc Dean Millot has reprinted a letter from Bob Slavin in response to the recently published analysis of Reading First by Sol Stern. Professor Slavin lists a set of concerns that Mr. Stern omitted from his analysis. Read it here.
Please remember that I am a member of the Reading First federal advisory committee. I am not, however, speaking for the committee, my fellow panelists, nor the US Department of Education here.
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In “Massive Funding Cuts to ‘Reading First’ Generate Worries for Struggling Schools,” Kathleen Kennedy Manzo of Education Week reports about the views of educators and policy analysts on recent reductions in funding for the US government’s Reading First program. Ms. Manzo, whose article includes the opinions of both those who consider the RF program to be succeeding and those who are frankly critical of it, uses this lead.
Continue reading ‘Reading First cuts’
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