Curriculum Report Roundup

Extra Dose of 9th Grade Reading Said to Help

By Debra Viadero — December 08, 2008 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Giving extra literacy classes to struggling 9th grade readers boosts their reading comprehension skills, according to second-year findings released last month from an ongoing federal study.

But while the latest report confirms performance increases found in the first-year study, it also shows that the gains were not strong enough to get students up to grade level by the end of the school year.

The new results came last month in the second of three reports to be issued under the Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study, a federal program that is testing promising strategies for low-performing adolescent readers in 34 high schools across the country.

The study, which is being conducted by MDRC Inc. of New York City for the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, focuses on two highly recommended intervention programs. They are Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy, developed in 1996 by researchers from WestEd, a San Francisco-based research group, and Xtreme Reading, a 2005 creation of the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning in Lawrence.

High schools within the 10 districts studied were randomly assigned to try out the programs, which students take for at least 225 minutes a week on top of their regular language arts classes. Those schools, likewise, randomly assigned struggling readers to either the program class or a regularly scheduled elective.

The new findings track results for the second crop of 9th graders to move through the programs. They show that, overall, the programs moved students’ reading performance over the course of the school year from the 14th to the 25th percentile. That’s 17 percent better than the reading gains that the control group students made the same year.

Also, the study notes, the new results were not statistically different from the outcomes for the year before, when the first group of 9th graders moved through the program.

Consistent with the first report’s findings, the researchers also did not find any sizeable differences in results between the two programs. They did find, though, that the results were slightly better in classes that adhered more closely to program guidelines.

The final report on the project is expected to be published in late 2009.

A version of this article appeared in the December 10, 2008 edition of Education Week

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
From Classrooms to Careers: How Schools and Districts Can Prepare Students for a Changing Workforce
Real careers start in school. Learn how Alton High built student-centered, job-aligned pathways.
Content provided by TNTP
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Curriculum How Digital Games Can Help Young Kids Separate Fact From Fiction
Even elementary students need to learn how to spot misinformation.
3 min read
Aerial view of an diverse elementary school classroom using digital  devices with a digitized design of lines connecting each device to symbolize AI and connectivity of data and Information.
iStock/Getty
Curriculum Opinion How Much Autonomy Should Teachers Have Over Instructional Materials?
Some policymakers are pushing schools to adopt high-quality scripted lessons for teachers. And here's why.
8 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
Curriculum Middle Schools Often Prioritize English and Math Over Other Subjects. Should They?
An Illinois district is equalizing time across the four major content areas. But the decision comes with trade-offs.
5 min read
Blue gradient photo of a middle school boy and girl in science class working with beakers with an overlay of a pie chart showing a slice of the pie.
SDI Productions/E+/Getty
Curriculum Q&A How This School Librarian Transformed the Library and Got More Kids to Read
While schools across the country have shed librarians, Leigh Knapp became the first full-time librarian at her school.
7 min read
A look at the new seating librarian Leigh Knapp brought into Bethune Academy's school library in Milwaukee.
A look at the new seating librarian Leigh Knapp brought into Bethune Academy's school library in Milwaukee. Knapp became the school's first full-time librarian at the start of the 2024-25 school year, with a vision of revitalizing the library and changing the school's culture around reading.
Courtesy of Leigh Knapp