Time
To Reevaluate Reading Options -- Most Curricula
Don't Meet "Proven" Standards
Your
early reading program may not be as effective
as you think. A recent federal review of beginning-reading
programs found slim research-based evidence of
these programs' overall effectiveness in raising
student achievement.
Reading
Recovery was the only What Works Clearinghouse-reviewed
program deemed to have positive effects or potentially
positive effects across all four domains in the
review: alphabetics, fluency, comprehension and
general reading achievement, reports Education
Week.
Ironic:
Federal officials and contractors have tried to
discourage states and districts from using Reading
Recovery (an intensive, one-on-one tutoring program)
in schools participating in the federal Reading
First program, citing a lack of evidence that
it helps struggling readers.
Bad
news: None of the most popular commercial
reading programs on the market provided sufficiently
rigorous research studies to earn inclusion in
the clearinghouse review, says the Ed Week article.
"They
[the major reading programs] tended not to have
studies with randomized-control trials or with
experimental designs that met the clearinghouse's
evidence standards," said Jill Constantine,
the review's principal director.
Other
popular programs WWC found to have potentially
positive effects in some of the areas studied:
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