State laws that mandate in-grade retention for struggling readers are widespread in the U.S., covering 34% of public-school third graders in 2023-24. This study investigates the impacts of Michigan's third-grade reading law on subsequent test scores and school progress outcomes for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 third-grade cohorts. Using a regression…

Students who struggle to read at an early age are likely to continue struggling for not only the rest of their schooling, but the rest of their lives. Schools need to begin adopting research-based reading programs and measuring their effectiveness formatively throughout the school year. Research suggests that effective reading programs need to…

In school districts across the nation, diverse student groups have been experiencing significant gains in reading performance after using READ 180. This compendium of READ 180 research contains 40 studies. The studies take place in a variety of settings in school districts across the country from 1999 to 2012. Summarized are correlational and…

In school districts across the nation, diverse student groups, including English Learners and students with disabilities, have been experiencing significant gains in reading performance after using READ 180. This compendium of READ 180 research contains results of 40 studies conducted in a variety of settings, in school districts across the…

This randomized controlled study examines the effects of an intervention, Fusion Reading, on the reading achievement and motivation of adolescent struggling readers. Fusion Reading was implemented in grades 6 through 10 in four middle schools and three high schools from three districts in the southeast and western Michigan. Eligible struggling…

This study reports on an examination of the effectiveness of a reading intervention for adults with disabilities in a vocational rehabilitation setting. Participants were 57 adults with disabilities and low reading skills enrolled at the Reading Clinic at the Michigan Career and Technical Institute. As part of a 3-year research and demonstration…

This study estimates the effect of one year of Fusion Reading implementation, a multistrategy intervention, builds on the work of the Strategic Instruction Model's Learning Strategies Curriculum and Xtreme Reading by integrating some of the same strategies (e.g., paraphrasing, visual imagery, and self-questioning for information acquisition;…

The purpose of this evaluation of Scholastic's "System 44" conducted by RMC Research was to expand the existing research on students with learning disabilities by conducting a randomized study of struggling readers with approximately half of the sample comprised of students with learning disabilities. Specifically, this evaluation…

Charter school administrators weathered start-up woes, among them challenging students with unmet needs, verbal assaults, dwindling student enrollment, and a first-year budget deficit exceeding $200,000 to implement a reading improvement strategy that holds promise for helping at-risk students read better, a point particularly underscored…