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ERIC Number: ED601017
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Mar
Pages: 315
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Memphis Striving Readers Project: Evaluation Report, Year 4
Schenck, Allen; Feighan, Kelly; Coffey, Debra; Rui, Ning
Research for Better Schools
This report presents the results from an evaluation of the fourth year of the Memphis Striving Readers Project (MSRP) conducted by Research for Better Schools (RBS). MSRP, funded for five years by the United States Department of Education, comprises two interventions aimed at improving adolescent literacy and the quality of literacy instruction across the curriculum. Eight Memphis City Schools (MCS) middle schools were chosen for inclusion in the study. The first intervention component, Scholastic's READ 180 program (Enterprise Edition), has been implemented for four years in the MSRP schools. The 90-minute daily model includes instructional materials to be implemented as four 20-minute rotations in which students use the software program to build skills, engage in teacher-directed whole- and small-group instruction, read independently, and conclude with a 10-minute wrap-up. Students in the sixth through eighth grades who demonstrated the strongest need for reading support--i.e., who performed in the bottom quartile on the reading/language arts portion of a prior Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test --were randomly selected to participate in the supplemental program or to serve as control group students. The second intervention component, the Memphis Content Literacy Academy (MCLA), is a whole-school professional development (PD) program designed by faculty, formerly at the University of Memphis, now at Bellarmine University, in collaboration with MCS staff. The overarching goal of MCLA is to improve literacy integration across the content areas through an intensive two-year PD program designed to develop middle school teachers' use of literacy strategies to improve achievement in reading and in core content area subjects (defined as English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies). Researchers collected information about the implementation and impact of the two interventions using a variety of methods, including surveying, observing, and interviewing participating teachers as well as reviewing program documents and student scores on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) and Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS). This report discusses the study background; evaluation of the implementation of the targeted intervention, years 1-4; evaluation of the impacts of the targeted intervention, years 1-4; evaluation of the implementation of the whole-school intervention, year 4; quasi-experimental estimations of the impacts of the whole-school intervention, years 3-4; and the study's conclusions. [This report was prepared for the United States Department of Education's Striving Readers Program.]
Research for Better Schools. 112 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102. Tel: 215-568-6150; Fax: 215-568-7260; e-mail: info@rbs.org; Web site: http://www.rbs.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Research for Better Schools (RBS); RMC Research Corporation; Department of Education (ED)
Identifiers - Location: Tennessee (Memphis)
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Iowa Tests of Basic Skills
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A