Universal Institute Charter School, a Title I school in South Philadelphia, uses instructional software for reading that offers diagnostic features so that teachers can quickly identify individual students' needs and respond to them. Because of the success students experienced in the learning support and summer school environments, the program was…

Getting students, teachers, and the entire community to read the same books at the same time has its challenges--but many more rewards. In this article, the author describes how West Morris Regional High School District in Chester, New Jersey, formed a "literacy club" for everyone in the school and the local community to encourage…

Many high school teachers and administrators think that reading instruction belongs in the lower grades. But according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 31% of eighth graders read at or above the proficient level, which means that many are entering high school unprepared for its advanced textbook reading and language…

This article discusses a three-tiered, differentiated curriculum in a response to intervention (RTI) framework that has successfully raised achievement at all levels, but is particularly successful with ninth-grade students. Walla Walla (Washington) School District implemented the three-tiered intervention program as a series of differentiated…

The parents of students who attend Decatur High School thought that there was little hope of their kids going on to college. After a year or so in Decatur's reading program, their sons and daughters were both transformed and college bound. In this article, the author describes how Decatur was able to successfully transform their students. Seven…

When Stephanie Smith became the principal of Seaford (Delaware) Middle School four years ago, she was told to accept the fact that the school would never be able to change its status as a school that needed to improve. She did not accept that. To improve performance levels, she set the expectations high. Her defiance paid off: the school is now…

In this article, the authors describe the balanced literacy pilot program at Monroe Middle School in Tampa, Florida. Monroe implemented the program as part of a districtwide effort to improve student literacy. It uses a four-pronged approach to improve literacy: (1) read-alouds; (2) independent reading; (3) shared reading; and (4) guided reading.…

Noble High School, a large school located in rural southern Maine, embraces the concept of smaller learning communities, and its more than 1,100 students are heterogeneously grouped into teams. Although Noble was recently cited as a model of rural education (NASSP, 2004), its students nevertheless struggle to develop important literacy skills. On…