Five years of emergent literacy and literacy data from 2002 to 2007 were reviewed for first through third graders in a small, rural school in the Midwest. Forty first graders had received Reading Recovery services over that time span. Their scores on DIBELS were compared to 41 low average to average students. Subsequent placement in special…

Background: School safety and quality affect student learning and success. This study examined the effects of a comprehensive elementary school-wide social-emotional and character education program, Positive Action, on teacher, parent, and student perceptions of school safety and quality utilizing a matched-pair, cluster-randomized, controlled…

Exploiting a statewide cutoff point on the placement examination used to assign students to remedial courses in Tennessee, this study employs a regression discontinuity research design to provide causal estimates of the effects on student outcomes of recently redesigned remedial courses at three Tennessee colleges. Moreover, using data on student…

Low graduation rates of high school students are a problem for the Native American community. One possible solution for low graduation rates is a credit recovery program that may assist Native American students to recover credit not earned in their early high school years. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a credit…

The goal of this study was to test the effectiveness of WestEd's Reading Apprenticeship (RA) professional development program on teacher practices and student learning. The professional development is designed to teach high school teachers how to integrate subject-specific literacy instruction into their regular curricula. The CRESST researchers…

Communities In Schools, Inc. (CIS) is a nationwide initiative designed to connect needed community resources with schools to help students, particularly those identified as at-risk, successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life. As part of a comprehensive 5-year national evaluation of CIS, ICF International conducted a school-level…

An achievement gap in reading existed in a Southwest United States school district with Hispanic, economically disadvantaged, English Language Learners (ELLs), and special education sixth grade students based on Measures of Academic Progress data. This study investigated the effectiveness of the "READ 180" reading intervention program…

This study examined the impact of basic skills curricular learning communities on academically underprepared community college students to determine if participation in such programs significantly contributed to student persistence from year one to year two. The conceptual framework that informed this study was Tinto's (1993) longitudinal model of…

This study explores the effects of a Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) program on language majority and minority students. The fundamental hypothesis was that the process of receiving instruction in two languages (English and Spanish) throughout elementary school (i.e., attendance at a TWBI school) would help the native Spanish-speaking students…

There is a great deal of research supporting Reading Recovery as a successful reading intervention program that assists below level first graders readers in closing the gap in reading at the same level of their average peers. There is a lack of research that analyses the cost-effectiveness of the Reading Recovery program compared to the cost in…

Two experimental studies at one urban middle school investigated the effects of the combination of Tier I and Tier II evidence-based reading instruction compared to Tier I alone on struggling sixth-grade readers (N = 109). All participants received free or reduced-price lunch, and 95% were considered English learners at some point in their school…

This study investigated the effects of small-group reading interventions, implemented within a school wide positive behavior support model, on elementary students with and without risk for emotional and behavior disorders. Participating schools and students were part of a larger randomized controlled group study. A subset of the larger study, four…

Objective: This article examines the impact of a universal social-emotional learning program, the Fast Track PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) curriculum and teacher consultation, embedded within the Fast Track selective prevention model. Method: The longitudinal analysis involved 2,937 children of multiple ethnicities who remained…

The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of learning communities for underprepared first-year students. The topic was examined by synthesizing data collected on a cohort of first-year college students participating in a "developmental" (special admittance) program. A quasi-experimental design evaluated the effectiveness of…

The literature on formative assessment shows great potential for significant improvements in student achievement. However, little is known about combining formative-assessment strategies, based in large part on short-cycle and medium-cycle assessments, with continuous quality improvement concepts to improve student achievement in mathematics at…