Evaluation of Reading Comprehension Programs

Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (as reauthorized in 2001 by the No Child Left Behind Act) is intended to help ensure that all children have the opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on challenging state standards and assessments. As the largest federal program supporting elementary and secondary education (funded at $13.9 billion in Fiscal Year 2008), these resources are targeted primarily to high-poverty districts and schools.

In 2006, more than 36 percent of 4th graders read below the basic level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). High school students in the bottom quartile of achievement are more likely than students in the top quartile to drop out of school. At the same time, there are increasing cognitive demands on students' knowledge when they begin reading to learn rather than learning to read. There are multiple techniques for direct instruction of comprehension skills in narrative text that are well-demonstrated in small studies. However, there is not much research on teaching reading comprehension within content areas such as social studies or science. This study was designed to fill this gap by examining the impact of four reading comprehension programs on student outcomes in social studies and science.