Program Announcement: Reading and Writing CFDA 84.305A

Program Officer:
Dr. Emily Doolittle
Emily.Doolittle@ed.gov
(202) 219-1201

Purpose

Through its research program on Reading and Writing (Read/Write), the Institute intends to contribute to improvement of reading and writing skills by: (1) exploring malleable factors¹ (e.g., children's behaviors, instructional practices) that are associated with better reading or writing outcomes as well as mediators and moderators of the relations between these practices and student outcomes, for the purpose of identifying potential targets of intervention; (2) developing innovative curricula or instructional approaches for teaching individuals reading or writing skills or for addressing the underlying causes of reading or writing difficulties (e.g., poor oral language skills); (3) evaluating the efficacy of fully developed curricula or instructional approaches for teaching reading or writing skills, or for reducing/preventing reading or writing difficulties through efficacy or replication trials; (4) evaluating the impact of curricula or instructional approaches for teaching reading or writing skills that are implemented at scale; and (5) developing and/or validating assessments of reading or writing that can be used by practitioners to support instruction.

The long-term outcome of this program will be an array of tools and strategies (e.g., assessments, instructional approaches) that have been documented to be effective for improving reading and writing.

Background

Too many students are unable to understand what they read. On the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 33 percent of fourth-graders and 26 percent of eighth-graders could not read at the basic level; on the 2005 NAEP, 27 percent of twelfth-graders could not read at the basic level. That is, when reading grade appropriate text, these students cannot extract the general meaning or make obvious connections between the text and their own experiences, or make simple inferences from the text. In other words, they cannot understand what they have read. By fourth grade, students are expected to learn new information by reading subject matter textbooks (Chall 1996). Poor reading skills may hinder students' progress in learning academic content in all areas.

A similar picture emerges in the development of writing skills. On the 2002 NAEP writing assessment, 14 percent of fourth-graders could not write at the basic level. The 2007 NAEP writing assessment indicated that 12 percent of eighth-graders and 18 percent of twelfth-graders could not write at the basic level.

Although tremendous advances have been made in understanding how children learn to read and write, we have less systematic knowledge about how individuals become proficient readers or proficient writers. There is subsequently little agreement as to what a teacher can or should do to cultivate active, engaged, and proficient readers and writers. On the 2007 NAEP, only 33 percent of fourth-graders and 31 percent of eighth-graders were reading at the proficient or advanced levels. On the 2005 NAEP, 35 percent of twelfth-graders were reading at the proficient or advanced levels. With regard to writing, on the 2002 NAEP, 28 percent of fourth-graders were at the proficient or advanced levels. On the 2007 NAEP 33 percent of eighth-graders and 24 percent of twelfth-graders were at the proficient or advanced levels.

The Institute invites applicants to consider how to improve the reading comprehension of learners of all skill levels. Improving reading comprehension requires the development and evaluation of curricula and instructional approaches that support the growth of proficient readers, the exploration of instructional factors that appear to contribute to improved reading comprehension outcomes, as well as the development and validation of new and innovative measurement tools that can be used to determine whether students are making adequate progress on the skills that contribute to reading comprehension.

Under the Reading and Writing program, the Institute supports research to develop innovative curricula or instructional approaches designed to support the development of proficient readers and writers from kindergarten through high school, and basic writing skills at the postsecondary level and to evaluate the impact of curricula and instructional approaches on improving student outcomes.

The Institute encourages researchers to explore malleable factors (e.g., children's behaviors, instructional practices) that are associated with better reading or writing outcomes, as well as mediators and moderators of the relations between these factors and student outcomes, for the purpose of identifying potential points of intervention. This is translational research intended to inform the development of innovative programs, practices, or products to improve reading and writing achievement. One approach to the exploration of malleable factors is for researchers to conduct detailed, quantifiable observations of reading or writing instruction (types of instruction, frequency, duration, under what circumstances), and then use the instructional data in conjunction with child characteristics to predict subsequent reading or writing performance. The goal here is to identify what type or combination of instructional activities is associated with better student outcomes and for which students. Researchers who can successfully predict student performance could use this information as the basis for developing an intervention. Another approach is to conduct multivariate analyses of district or state databases in order to identify existing programs and practices that may be associated with better reading or writing outcomes and to examine factors and conditions that may mediate or moderate the relations between the student outcomes and these programs and practices.

The Institute seeks proposals to develop and/or validate reading or writing measurement tools for classroom assessments to be used for instructional purposes (e.g., progress monitoring). To improve reading and writing skills, instruction may need to be tailored to the sources of difficulty that individual students experience. An ideal learning environment might involve regular and frequent assessment of skills and the possibility of individualized instruction for students based on the particular source of their difficulties. The Institute intends to support the development and/or validation of diagnostic assessments and progress monitoring assessments of reading and writing.

In addition, the Institute particularly encourages research on assessments of reading comprehension. Current measures of reading comprehension provide limited, and often divergent, information about the skills of the readers being assessed. These measures typically only indicate whether a reader is a "good" or "poor" comprehender, and do not provide information about why a reader is struggling to comprehend. Is the failure to comprehend attributable to (a) an inability to identify which components of a text represent the main idea; (b) difficulty drawing inferences within a sentence, paragraph, or entire text; or (c) some other skill or constellation of skills? The Institute invites researchers to consider these types of questions as they develop, revise, and validate assessments of reading comprehension.

References

Chall, J.S. (1996). Stages of reading development (2nd edition). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.