Acknowledgments
The Reading First Impact Study Team would like to express its gratitude to the students, faculty, and staff in the study's participating schools and districts. Their contributions to the study (via assessments, observations, surveys, and more) are deeply appreciated. We are the beneficiaries of their generosity of time and spirit.
The listed authors of this report represent only a small part of the team involved in this project. We would like to acknowledge the support of staff from Computer Technology Services (for the study's data collection website), from DataStar (for data entry), from MDRC (especially Mario Flecha, for his help on the calendar front), from Retail Solutions at Work (and the hundreds of classroom observers who participated in intensive training and data collection activities), from Paladin Pictures (for developing training videos for classroom observations), from RMC Research (especially Chris Dwyer, for help on developing instruments and on training observers), from Rosenblum-Brigham Associates (for district site visits), from Westat (especially Sherry Sanborne and Alex Ratnofsky, for managing the student assessment, and the many Student Assessment Coordinators and even more test administrators), and from Westover (especially Wanda Camper, LaKisha Dyson, and Pamela Wallace for helping with meeting logistics).
The study has also benefited from both external and internal technical advisors, including:
External Advisors
Josh Angrist
David Card
Robert Brennan
Thomas Cook*
Jack Fletcher*
David Francis
Larry Hedges*
Robinson Hollister*
Guido Imbens
Brian Jacob
David Lee
Tim Shanahan*
Judy Singer
Jeff Smith
Faith Stevens*
Petra Todd
Wilbert Van der Klaauw
Sharon Vaughn*
Internal advisors
Steve Bell (A)
Gordon Berlin (M)
Nancy Burstein (A)
Fred Doolittle (M)
Barbara Goodson (A)
John Hutchins (M)
Marc Moss (A)
Chuck Michalopoulous (M)
Larry Orr (A)
Cris Price (A)
Janet Quint (M)
Howard Rolston (A)
(A–Abt Associates)
(M–MDRC)
* Individuals who have served on the study's Technical Work Group
Finally, we want to recognize the steady contributions of Abt staff, including Brenda Rodriguez, Fran Coffey, Lynn Reneau, Davyd Roskilly, Jon Schmalz, and Estella Sena, who were instrumental in completing multiple data collections, and Eileen Fahey, Katheleen Linton, and Jan Nicholson for countless hours of production support.