Study: 84082

Reading Apprenticeship® Intervention Report - Study Review Protocol

Review Details

Reviewed: December 2022

No statistically significant positive
findings

Meets WWC standards without reservations

For:

Reading Apprenticeship® Intervention Report - Study Review Protocol

Using:

Rating:

Meets WWC standards without reservations because it is a cluster randomized controlled trial with low cluster-level attrition and individual-level non-response.

This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Please see the WWC summary of evidence for Reading Apprenticeship®.

Findings

Intrapersonal Competencies outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index	Evidence tier
Happiness and belonging, based on researcher developed survey	Reading Apprenticeship® vs. Business as usual	0 Days	Full sample: Year 2; 11,386 students	3.40	3.38	No	--
Opportunity to Learn Survey: Student Identity	Reading Apprenticeship® vs. Business as usual	0 Days	Full sample: Year 2; 11,426 students	3.30	3.30	No	--

Reading Comprehension outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index
Educational Testing Service (ETS) Global Integrated Scenario-Based Assessment for Literacy	Reading Apprenticeship® vs. Business as usual	0 Days	Full sample: Year 2; 10,173 students	-0.02	-0.16	No	--
Show Supplemental Findings
Educational Testing Service (ETS) Global Integrated Scenario-Based Assessment for Literacy	Reading Apprenticeship® vs. Business as usual	0 Days	English learners: Year 2; 1,156 students	-0.75	-0.84	No	--

Student Behavior outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index
Participation and contribution to class discussions, based on researcher developed survey	Reading Apprenticeship® vs. Business as usual	Full sample: Year 2; 11,398 students	2.93	2.84	No	--
Student engagement, based on researcher developed survey	Reading Apprenticeship® vs. Business as usual	Full sample: Year 2; 206 teachers	12.09	12.01	No	--
Engaging instruction, based on researcher developed survey	Reading Apprenticeship® vs. Business as usual	Full sample: Year 2; 11,401 students	3.50	3.48	No	--
Effort to learn, based on researcher developed survey	Reading Apprenticeship® vs. Business as usual	Full sample: Year 2; 11,390 students	3.49	3.49	No	--

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Sample Characteristics

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

11% English language learners
Female: 45%
Male: 55%
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Race
Asian		8%
Black		5%
Other or unknown		39%
White		48%

Ethnicity
Hispanic		38%
Not Hispanic or Latino		62%

Eligible for Free and Reduced Price Lunch
Free or reduced price lunch (FRPL)		47%
No FRPL		53%

Study Details

Setting

The study took place in 42 high schools across California and Pennsylvania.

Study sample

The researchers randomly assigned 22 schools to the intervention group and 20 schools to the comparison group. A total of 10,173 students in grades 9 through 12 were included in the sample for the literacy outcome assessed at the end of the second year of implementation. The 10,173 students were in 42 high schools. Across all full-sample findings that meet WWC standards, samples sizes ranged from 10,173 to 11,426 students. Among the literacy sample, approximately 45% of the students were female, 47% were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 11% were English learners, and 10% were reported as receiving special education services. Forty-eight percent were White, 8% were Asian, 5% were Black, and 39% either reported other race or did not report race. Thirty-eight percent were Hispanic or Latino.

Intervention Group

Reading Apprenticeship® is a professional development program that aims to help teachers improve students’ literacy skills that are needed in core subjects, such as English, science, or social studies. The program aims to help high school students adopt strategies and routines used by proficient readers, improve their comprehension skills, motivate them to read more, and enjoy reading. Teachers in the intervention group implemented Reading Apprenticeship Improving Secondary Education (RAISE), which was designed to scale up Reading Apprenticeship® to new locations and settings. RAISE enhancements included (1) recruitment and training of a cadre of professional development facilitators, (2) appointment of state site coordinators to support schools, (3) recruitment of teacher leaders to hold monthly meetings to support teachers, and (4) support to school administrators that included an online course on the Reading Apprenticeship® framework. Teachers in the intervention group taught at least one class in English language arts, history, or science at the time of random assignment. They implemented the intervention with whole classes. The intervention’s effects were measured in the second year of implementation, after participating teachers received a full year of professional development.

Comparison Group

Students in the comparison group received business-as-usual instruction. Comparison teachers may have participated in other business-as-usual training and professional development offered by their schools or school districts.

Support for implementation

The program was implemented by WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI). WestEd staff recruited and trained professional development facilitators, appointed site coordinators, recruited school-based teacher leaders, and provided support and resources to school administrators including an on-line course on the Reading Apprenticeship® framework. Each year, SLI provided 10 days (65 hours) of professional development to up to nine Reading Apprenticeship® teachers in each school. A group of teacher leaders also supported intervention teachers, with at least one teacher leader supporting each school. The teacher leaders were responsible for convening monthly team meetings at their schools to support teachers’ implementation of Reading Apprenticeship®.

Additional Sources

In the case of multiple manuscripts that report on one study, the WWC selects one manuscript as the primary citation and lists other manuscripts that describe the study as additional sources.

Fancsali, Cheri; Abe, Yasuyo; Pyatigorsky, Mikhail. (2016). Developing Content-Area Academic Literacy: A Randomized Control Trial of the Reading Apprenticeship Improving Secondary Education (RAISE) Project. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness.

Department-funded evaluation

Review Details

Reviewed: January 2017

No statistically significant positive
findings

Meets WWC standards with reservations

For:

Department-funded evaluation (findings for Reading Apprenticeship®)

Using:

Rating:

Meets WWC standards with reservations because it is a randomized controlled trial with low attrition, but the randomization was compromised.

Findings

English language arts achievement outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index	Evidence tier
Literacy Achievement Assessment	Reading Apprenticeship® vs. Business as usual	2 Years	Full sample; 10,173 students	N/A	N/A	No	--

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Sample Characteristics

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

14% English language learners
61% Minority
39% Non-minority
Female: 49%
Male: 51%
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Study Details

Setting

The study took place in 42 high schools in the states of California and Pennsylvania. 152 teachers of students in 9th-12 grade English Language Arts, Science, and History participated.

Study sample

Among the 252 teachers, 57.8% were female and 33.9% taught English Literature, 33.5% taught US History, and 32.6% taught Science. On average, the teachers had been teaching for 9.94 years and a majority had Master's degrees (55.8%). Among the 14,747 students, 48.7% identified as female and 11.3% were placed into special education courses and 13.8% were English Language Learners. 60.8% identified as nonwhite.

Intervention Group

The Reading Apprenticeship instructional framework was developed to help teachers provide literacy support to students. The program focuses on four interacting dimensions of classroom learning culture: Social, Personal, Cognitive, and Knowledge-Building. These found dimensions are woven into subject-area teaching through metacognitive conversations. The Reading Apprenticeship program is designed to help teachers create classroom cultures in which students feel safe to share reading processes, problems, problems, and solutions. Students in the program are compared to students who did not receive the program.

Comparison Group

Comparison teachers and students continued to receive business-as-usual.

Support for implementation

The authors provided extensive support for implementation to the teachers. The authors first provided teachers with the professional development course and reported that 85% of the courses included intended measures of instruction. The authors also measured teachers attendance in the professional development courses and attendance at monthly meetings. To assess how the programs were being implemented, the authors asked teachers to complete program fidelity checklists. The authors reported that fidelity was consistently reported for a majority of the teachers and schools.

The Impact of the Reading Apprenticeship Improving Secondary Education (RAISE) Project on Academic Literacy in High School: A Report of a Randomized Experiment in Pennsylvania and California Schools. Research Report

Reading Apprenticeship® Intervention Report - Study Review Protocol

Review Details

Findings

Sample Characteristics

Study Details

Setting

Study sample

Intervention Group

Comparison Group

Support for implementation

Additional Sources

Department-funded evaluation

Review Details

Findings

Sample Characteristics

Study Details

Setting

Study sample

Intervention Group

Comparison Group

Support for implementation