The fundamental goal of the Third Grade Summer Reading Camp program in 2024 was to bolster the reading skills of struggling third grade students and to prepare them to demonstrate mastery of state standards needed to be promoted to the fourth grade. The Office of Program Evaluation undertook an evaluation to gauge whether students who completed…

Research Findings: In an effort toward developing a comprehensive, effective, scalable, and sustainable early childhood education program for at-risk populations, we conducted an experimental evaluation of the value added by 2 family involvement programs to the Texas Early Education Model (TEEM). A total of 91 preschool classrooms that served…

Across the country, a growing number of recent high school graduates are participating in summer bridge programs. These programs provide accelerated and focused learning opportunities in order to help students acquire the knowledge and skills needed for college success. The state of Texas has given particular attention to summer programs as a way…

With the emergence of response to intervention as a key element for supporting school success for all students, there is a need for teachers to know which interventions have been found to be effective. Some interventions have been validated with a number of research studies, but new interventions also need such validation. This study was a program…

Research on the outcomes of Montessori education is scarce and results are inconsistent. One possible reason for the inconsistency is variations in Montessori implementation fidelity. To test whether outcomes vary according to implementation fidelity, we examined preschool children enrolled in high fidelity classic Montessori programs, lower…

"Reading Mastery" is designed to provide explicit reading instruction to students in grades pre-K-5. One of several Direct Instruction curricula from McGraw-Hill, "Reading Mastery" is available in two versions: (1) "Reading Mastery Classic" (for grades pre-K-2) aims to help beginning readers identify letter sounds,…

Students entering high school face many new academic challenges. One of the most important is their ability to read and understand more complex text in literature, mathematics, science, and social studies courses as they navigate through a rigorous high school curriculum. The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northwest conducted a study to…

Curriculum-based measurement of reading (CBM-R) is used in research and practice to estimate the level and trend of student achievement. Although there is limited empirical or psychometric support to guide CBM-R progress monitoring practices, derived trend estimates are used to inform a variety of educational decisions including evaluations of…

The purpose of this study was to explore any differences in teachers' perceptions and attitudes toward student achievement of learning when using two different state-mandated commercial reading programs. The study identified the nature of the relationship and implications between teachers' perceptions and attitudes toward student learning when…

The Louisiana Board of Regents is currently outpacing the nation in its ability to inform the public about the effectiveness of redesigned teacher preparation programs in preparing new teachers to teach grades 4-9 students in the areas of mathematics, science, social studies, reading, and language arts. Through the use of Louisiana's Value-Added…

"Reading Mastery," one of several curriculum components that constitute the "Direct Instruction" curriculum from SRA/McGraw-Hill, is designed to provide systematic instruction in reading to students in grades K-6. "Reading Mastery," which can be used as an intervention program for struggling readers, as a supplement…

After-school programs receive federal support through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers, established in 1999. A primary purpose of the program is to provide opportunities for academic enrichment to help students meet state and local standards in core content areas. Findings from a previous national evaluation of the program indicate that…

Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading (CBM-R) is used to index the level and rate of student growth across the academic year. The method is frequently used to set student goals and monitor student progress. This study examined the diagnostic accuracy and quality of growth estimates derived from pre-post measurement using CBM-R data. A…

The 2008-2009 Annual Reading First Progress Report reflects on the final year of implementation for Round I schools and the third full year of implementation for Round II schools. This report focuses on the effect that Reading First implementation has had on selected schools across Nebraska with a special focus on vulnerable populations: English…

Rural community colleges often face the problem of having to cancel classes due to low enrollment. To eliminate this problem one western community college developed several presentation modes for College Reading I (CR1) to combine low-enrollment classes. This study was a program evaluation on non-equivalent groups to determine which presentation…