Purpose: To measure the impact of the Content Literacy Continuum (CLC), a school-wide literacy-across the curriculum program, on secondary teachers' instruction and students' achievement across content areas. Research Questions: To what extent does a literacy-across-the-curriculum intervention improve students' reading skills and other academic outcomes' such as attendance; persistence in school; course-taking patterns; and performance on high-stakes, standards-based assessments? What is the effect of a literacy-across-the-curriculum approach on literacy instruction (among both language arts teachers and teachers of other subjects)? What factors promote or impede successful implementation of a literacy-across-the-curriculum approach in high schools?
Intervention:
The CLC intervention is presented in the form of guidebooks that contain all of the instructional protocols and support materials that are required for teachers to effectively implement the intervention. A team of three to four professional developers works with all administrators and teachers in a high school on a sustained basis (three to five years) to implement comprehensive change in literacy instruction across the curriculum.
Design and Samples:
A cluster random assignment design with schools being the key unit of treatment and thus the unit of random assignment. The design will include a total of 40 high schools (20 treatment group and 20 in a control group) across 12 districts or consortia of districts (small districts clustered geographically) and at least three states in the region. To capture the diversity of school districts and high schools within the region, we will recruit urban and midsize school districts and at least one rural school district or consortium of districts. We will seek high-need high schools serving Grades 9-12 where the following exist: at least one third of the students come from poverty families and at least 50 percent of the students are reading at least two grades below grade level on the eighth-grade state or district assessments.
Outcome Measures:
Individual student records data (i.e., achievement test scores from all state and district tests, course credit information, grades, course levels, attendance, promotion to the next grade and graduation) to measure academic performance and school progress. Field research and observations to measure implementation fidelity and service contrast. Teacher surveys to measure implementation fidelity and teacher practice
Improving Adolescent Literacy Across the Curriculum in High Schools (Content Literacy Continuum, CLC)