The importance of adolescent literacy is well established, and the topic continues to be of both local and national interest. Practitioners need to know not only which programs and practices appear effective, but which have the scientific evidence to support that claim. To identify effective programs and practices for general education students in grades 6-12, this review examined thirty-three studies of adolescent literacy programs and practices published over the past 20 years using What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards to evaluate the scientific rigor of their research design. This review presents key findings from 12 programs and practices demonstrating positive or potentially positive effects on reading comprehension, vocabulary, or general literacy. The review found: (1) Most of the identified programs and practices included instructional elements such as explicit instruction in reading comprehension or use of instructional routines; (2) These programs and practices can be implemented within the structure of a typical middle-school language arts or content-area classroom. In most cases implementation involved ongoing support for teachers; (3) None of the 12 identified programs and practices was conducted in a high school setting; and (4) Some of the programs and practices were identified as having potentially positive effects on high-stakes outcome assessments, such as state accountability reading assessments. The following are appended: (1) The search, screening, and review process; (2) The 111 studies reviewed using What Works Clearinghouse standards; (3) Details of the 33 studies that the review team found had met What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards; (4) Description of the interventions used in the 33 studies that the review team found had met What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards.
