Project Activities
In Year 1, the team identified adaptations required to improve marketability and remove barriers to adoption and implementation. These adaptations were identified through investigations from three vantage points: (1) users and potential users of the program at the district, school, and classroom levels in geographically dispersed areas across the country; and (2) users at the district, school, and classroom levels in one high needs district. The team implemented the highest priority adaptations that are feasible within the constraints of this project, and then assessed the efficacy of the adapted STARI program for accelerating student reading growth.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The research took place in urban middle schools in Washington, DC. Additional information gathering and data collection activities involved educators from a sample of STARI users or potential users across the United States.
Sample
Approximately 645 students in grades 6-8, who read 2 or more years below grade level in the partner district, participated in the research. The student body of the district is comprised of 90 percent students of color and 73 percent students receiving free or reduced-price lunch. The network team used de-identified data to assess the efficacy of STARI by comparing fall-to-spring test-score gains between STARI students, students in another reading intervention, and students not in any reading intervention.
As part of the investigation to identify implementation barriers and facilitators, the team recruited a sample of STARI users and potential users (district- and school-level leaders, instructional coaches, and classroom teachers) from varied geographical areas.
STARI is a fully developed, year-long, literature-based intervention for grades 6 and up that includes teacher lesson plans, student workbooks, and fluency passages. STARI curriculum materials are freely available for download as open education resources. An online STARI Professional Learning Series provides teacher development resources prior to and during the first year of implementation. As a result of this project, adaptations were developed to improve STARI’s marketability, implementation, and impact on student achievement.
Research design and methods
In Year 1, the research team identified adaptations to STARI through: (1) surveys and interviews of uptake and implementation barriers and facilitators among stakeholders in a range of schools and districts that were implementing or considering implementing STARI; (2) a detailed investigation of one district implementing STARI to collect contextualized data about implementation barriers and facilitators at central office, school, and classroom levels. Adaptations were then prioritized according to a roughly estimated rate of return, and the highest priority adaptations were undertaken.
In Year 2, the research team assessed the efficacy of STARI for accelerating student reading growth by comparing fall-to-spring test-score gains on the Reading Inventory assessment between STARI students, students in another reading intervention, and students not in any reading intervention. This analysis indicated that STARI students grew more than students who were not enrolled in a reading intervention, and either more or at least as much as students who were enrolled in a different reading intervention.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
The team will produce an adapted STARI program, findings on the impact of the adapted program in one school district, findings regarding marketability for different target audiences (states, districts, schools), and an informed strategy for expanding the STARI market. The research team will conduct dissemination and outreach through existing and new channels developed through this project, collaboration with dissemination partners, peer-reviewed publications, and interaction via social media.
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Additional project information
This project is part of the Leveraging Evidence to Accelerate Recovery Nationwide (LEARN) Network, which focuses on adapting and preparing to scale existing, evidence-based products that have the potential to accelerate students' learning relative to pre-pandemic rates of growth for the many learners enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12, postsecondary education, or adult education programs whose learning was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
