There exist passionate debates about the best way to teach children to read. Since the Bush administration, school districts receiving federal funds have been required to have research evidence justifying their methods of teaching reading, and in recent years the need for evidence-based practices have intensified with the "Science of…

This study examined the effects of Reading Intervention for Adolescents (RIA) and a mentoring intervention (MI) implemented for 1 year with ninth-grade English learners (ELs) with reading difficulties. Eligible students enrolled at three urban high schools were randomly assigned to the RIA (n = 142), MI (n = 163), RIA and MI (n = 164), or…

This study investigated the effectiveness of an afterschool reading intervention program(ASRIP) in addressing the problem of at-risk English 10 students in an urban high school in danger of failing the Tennessee End of Course Test (TEOCT) because of low TEOCT pretest scores, poor regular school attendance (RSA), and low grade point average(GPA).…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect on student scores on the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA®) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Reading Assessment when students are engaged with on-line adaptive diagnostics and instruction via the Curriculum Associates (CA) i-Ready Reading on-line platform. Outcomes were explored based on…

This study examined the effects of Reading Intervention for Adolescents, a 2-year extensive reading intervention targeting current and former English learners identified as struggling readers based on their performance on the state accountability assessment. Students who enrolled at three participating urban high schools were randomly assigned to…

In an effort to provide intervention for struggling adolescent readers, schools are turning increasingly toward computer-assisted reading intervention programs. This case study analyzes the perceptions, and contradictions, that exist between students, teachers, and administrators of the intervention tools used at one urban middle school. The…

This study examined the effects of Reading Intervention for Adolescents, a 2-year extensive reading intervention targeting current and former English learners identified as struggling readers based on their performance on the state accountability assessment. Students who enrolled at three participating urban high schools were randomly assigned to…

Based on the Lexile® Framework, a scientific approach to reading and text measurement backed by more than two decades of ongoing research, Achieve3000®, a web-based differentiated reading program used by HISD, is designed to improve student reading ability and comprehension of increasingly complex texts by initially meeting students where they are…

Nearly one-quarter of U.S. eighth graders score below basic on national assessments of reading (NCES, 2013) and are poorly equipped for the reading demands of secondary school. Struggling adolescent readers cannot summarize a simple passage, use context to determine word meanings, and have difficulties making text-based inferences. In addition,…

Based on the Lexile® Framework, a scientific approach to reading and text measurement backed by more than two decades of ongoing research, Achieve3000®, a web-based differentiated reading program used by HISD [Houston Independent School District], is designed to improve student reading ability and comprehension of increasingly complex texts by…

Achieve 3000 was implemented during the 2013-2014 school year. This program was designed to increase student Lexile levels. Specifically, Achieve 3000 was targeted at students in the tenth grade in selected schools. There were 5,023 tenth-grade students from 17 participating high schools who utilized the web-based program. Of these 5,023 students,…

Balanced literacy has been proposed as a compromise or middle ground between philosophical approaches to reading instruction that stress teaching of word recognition and those that stress construction of meaning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the READ 180 balanced literacy supplementary instruction program on…

Produced in 1977, "Bridge: A Cross Culture Reading Program" could have transformed what we presently know as urban education. However, "Bridge" met with the disapproval of parents, communities, and school districts. The execution of a truly transformative curriculum died as an experimental project implemented in urban school…

Reading achievement scores for adolescents with disabilities are markedly lower than the scores of adolescents without disabilities. For example, 62% of students with disabilities read "below" the basic level on the NAEP Reading assessment, compared to 19% of their nondisabled peers. This achievement gap has been a continuing challenge…

The roughly one-quarter of U.S. eighth graders who score below basic on national assessments of reading are poorly equipped for the reading demands of secondary school. They struggle with summarizing and making text-based inferences (NCES, 2013). Intervention in middle school needs to be comprehensive, both because of the heterogeneity of the…