Success for All®

Success for All^® was found to have no discernible effects on English language development for English language learners.

Success for All^® is a program for students in pre-K through 8th grade that focuses on reading, writing, and oral language development. The goal of Success for All^® is that all children, including those with limited English proficiency, can and should be reading in English at grade level. (Success for All^® also has a version focused on Spanish literacy, but outcomes associated with that program fall outside the scope of this report.) According to program guidelines, initial reading instruction should be delivered in daily 90-minute blocks to students grouped by reading level across classes and grades. Cooperative learning is encouraged. Regular assessments are used to monitor children’s progress and guide instruction. Certified teachers provide daily tutoring to those students who are having difficulty reading. In addition, Family Support Teams and full-time Success for All^® facilitators train teachers, oversee student assessments, encourage parental involvement, work to decrease absenteeism, and assist with decisions about group placement and tutoring.

No studies of Success for All^® that fall within the scope of the English Language Learners review protocol meet What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards, and one study meets WWC evidence standards with reservations. This study included 2,890 English language learners from kindergarten through fifth grade attending Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This study examines the effectiveness of Success for All^® against two comparison groups. In the first comparison, the 1,441 English language learners in schools implementing Success for All^® were compared to 694 English language learners in schools implementing the regular district reading program, Comprehensive Reading Plan. A second comparison involved 755 English language learners in schools implementing the SRA/McGraw Hill Reading Mastery program.

Based on this one study, the WWC considers the extent of evidence for Success for All^® on English language learners to be small for English language development. The one study that meets WWC evidence standards with reservations did not examine the effectiveness of Success for All^® in the reading achievement or mathematics domains for English language learners.