The New York State Education Department, in partnership with the New York City Department of Education, developed a "Striving Readers project" to address the literacy needs of early adolescent struggling readers in middle school. The goal of the project was to implement and examine the impact of a one-year comprehensive supplemental literacy intervention offered in New York City middle schools. The 11 schools included in the study were drawn from 4 of the 5 boroughs of New York City, and were relatively homogeneous. Most were primarily male, and Hispanic/Latino. Furthermore, the majority of the students represented diverse backgrounds. The schools served grades 6-8, though ranged in size as well as number of teachers. The sample students were chosen from the pool who had earned scores of 2 on the 2009-2010 New York State English Language Arts (NYS-ELA) exam. The 11 participating schools had smaller percentages of students receiving passing scores on the exam. Similarly, most of the schools had fewer students earning a passing score on the 2009-2010 New York State Math (NYS-Math) exam. This report reflects comparability of the treatment and control students prior to program implementation. Students were compared on the individual level as well as on building, teacher, and classroom levels.