College Ready: Reading and Writing to Learn

The purpose of the research is to develop, refine, and assess College Ready: Reading and Writing to Learn over the course of 4 years. In Year 1, the intervention and all related materials will be developed with feedback from high school teacher focus groups, college professor consultants, and mentors. Students will participate in feasibility studies in Years 2 and 3 and a pilot study in Year 4. Educational outcomes  will include (1) informative writing genre knowledge, (2) identifying credible source texts, (3) learning from text, (4) writing an informative essay using central ideas and key supporting details from source texts, (5) self-efficacy for reading and writing scale, and (6) the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test reading comprehension subtest and essay composition subtest. Students' use of technology tools will also be examined. After receiving the intervention and posttests, students will participate in a social validity focus group. Teachers in the treatment and control conditions will complete a survey about their background information, current reading and writing teaching practices, and their knowledge and perceptions of quality writing and writing instruction. Fidelity of implementation will be measured for teachers in the treatment group and these teachers will participate in a social validity focus group. Data from various sources such as teacher focus groups, college professor consultants, mentor meetings, and observation field notes will be used to guide development and revision of the intervention. Quantitative data will be analyzed using multilevel modeling to examine the potential promise of College Ready: Reading and Writing to Learn for students' reading and writing development.