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The Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study: Findings from the Second Year of Implementation

NCES 2009-4036
November 2008

The Supplemental Literacy Interventions

The ERO study is a test of supplemental literacy interventions that are designed as fullyear courses and targeted to students whose reading skills are two or more years below grade level as they enter high school. Two programs — Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy (RAAL), designed by WestEd, and Xtreme Reading, designed by the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning — were selected for the study from a pool of 17 applicants by a national panel of experts on adolescent literacy. To qualify for the project, the programs were required to focus instruction in the following areas: (1) student motivation and engagement; (2) reading fluency, or the ability to read quickly, accurately, and with appropriate expression; (3) vocabulary, or word knowledge; (4) comprehension, or making meaning from text; (5) phonics and phonemic awareness (for students who could still benefit from instruction in these areas); and (6) writing. The overarching goals of both programs are to help ninth-grade students adopt the strategies and routines used by proficient readers, improve their comprehension skills, and be motivated to read more and to enjoy reading. Both programs are supplemental in that they consist of a yearlong course that replaces a ninth-grade elective class, rather than a core academic class, and in that they are offered in addition to students’ regular English language arts classes.

The primary differences between the two literacy interventions selected for the ERO study lie in their approach to implementation. Implementation of RAAL is guided by the concept of “flexible fidelity” — that is, while the program includes a detailed curriculum, the teachers are trained to adapt their lessons to meet the needs of their students and to supplement program materials with readings that are motivating to their classes. Teachers have flexibility in how they include various aspects of the RAAL curriculum in their day-to-day teaching activities, but they have been trained to do so such that they maintain the overarching spirit, themes, and goals of the program in their instruction.

Implementation of Xtreme Reading is guided by the philosophy that the presentation of instructional material — particularly the order and timing with which the lessons are presented — is of critical import to students’ understanding of the strategies and skills being taught. As such, teachers are trained to deliver course content and materials in a precise, organized, and systematic fashion designed by the developers. Xtreme Reading teachers follow a prescribed implementation plan, following specific day-by-day lesson plans in which activities have allotted segments of time within each class period. Teachers also use responsive instructional practices to adapt and adjust to student needs that arise as they move through the highly structured curriculum.

Overview of the Study

Interventions. Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy (RAAL) and Xtreme Reading — supplemental literacy programs designed as full-year courses to replace a ninth-grade elective class. The programs were selected through a competitive applications process based on ratings by an expert panel.

Study sample. Two cohorts of ninth-grade students from 34 high schools and 10 school districts (2,916 students in Cohort 1 and 2,679 students in Cohort 2). Districts and schools were selected by ED’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education through a special Small Learning Communities grant competition. Students were selected based on reading comprehension test scores that were between two and five years below grade level.

Research design. Within each district, high schools were randomly assigned to use either the RAAL program or the Xtreme Reading program during two school years (2005-2006 and 2006- 2007). Within each high school, students were randomly assigned to enroll in the ERO class or to remain in a regularly scheduled elective class. A reading comprehension test and a survey were administered to students in the spring of eighth grade or at the start of ninth grade, prior to random assignment, and again at the end of ninth grade. Classroom observations in the first and second semester of the school year were used to measure implementation fidelity.

Outcomes. Reading comprehension and vocabulary test scores, reading behaviors, student attendance in the ERO classes and other literacy support services, implementation fidelity.

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