The U.S. Department of Education released an interim report presenting the impacts of Reading First on classroom reading instruction and student reading comprehension during the 2004–05 and 2005–06 school years. The study found that Reading First did have positive, statistically significant impacts on the total class time spent on the five essential components of reading instruction promoted by the program. The study also found that, on average across the 18 study sites, Reading First did not have statistically significant impacts on student reading comprehension test scores in grades 1–3.
Northwest Regional Comprehensive Center
Printed from: http://nwrcc.educationnorthwest.org/enews/archive/19
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April/May 2008 E-newsletter
Below is a listing of our archived monthly e-newsletters. You can view the resources we mentioned in each issue by clicking on the link or Search Resources to find any resource from an e-newsletter or event.
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The U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has recently funded this newly established technical assistance center to assist states in building their capacity for scaling up effective education practices.
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On April 22, 2008, Secretary Spellings announced proposed regulations to strengthen and clarify No Child Left Behind. The proposed regulations focus on improved accountability and transparency, uniform and disaggregated graduation rates, and improved parental notification for supplemental educational services and public school choice.
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The Center on Instruction has a guide for elementary school principals based on scientific research on reading and reading instruction as well as on studies of successful schools and interviews with successful principals. It includes critical elements of an effective reading program in elementary school, critical tasks for principals as literacy leaders, and special considerations for reading instruction after third grade.
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The Center on Instruction has a brief focusing on the five reading components adolescents need to succeed in school and beyond. Each component: word study; fluency; vocabulary; comprehension; and motivation, is discussed in terms of the available research, comparisons of successful and struggling readers' behaviors, and recommended instructional practices. The brief aligns with two other Center on Instruction publications, Reading Interventions for Adolescent Struggling Readers: A Meta-Analysis with Implications for Practice (Scammacca et al., 2007 and Academic Literacy Instruction for Adolescents: A Guidance Document from the Center on Instruction (Torgesen et al., 2007).
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The Center on Innovation and Improvement recently published a report identifying and explaining 14 leader actions associated with a successful school turnaround. Drawing on case studies, the report includes real-world vignettes of actions that successful school leaders have taken to turn around low-performing schools. An annotated bibliography is also provided.
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The U.S. Department of Education recently released a guide identifying practices that can improve the performance of chronically low-performing schools. The four recommendations in this guide work together to help failing schools make adequate yearly progress.
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The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality recently released a research report describing the associations between teacher quality and student achievement, as identified in a research synthesis conducted by the Center. It identifies several teacher quality variables--including specific teacher qualifications, characteristics, and classroom practices--that are strong and consistent predictors of student achievement.
