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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: 1-800-548-4998
Baltimore, May 2 – Both the
White House and the U.S. Department of Education routinely
point to the more than 100 references to “scientifically
based research” contained in the No Child Left
Behind Act when telling schools to use “what works.”
But few programs have allowed themselves to be examined
under the most rigorous of scientific study methods
– large-scale, randomized experiments. Dr. Grover
J. (Russ) Whitehurst, Director of the Institute for
Education Science, refers to such studies as the “gold
standard” of research.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins
University, and the Success for All Foundation presented
a study of the Success for All reading program that
used such “gold standard” methods. According
to the report by Geoffrey Borman and others, students
using Success for All for two years read significantly
better than similar students in control groups. On measures
of decoding, the difference was equivalent to 4.7 additional
months of learning.
It is very unusual for a study of this size and complexity
to find statistically significant positive achievement
effects, meaning that the Success for All program has
now joined a very small list of programs that have been
conclusively proven to be effective in increasing student
learning. The study, which was funded by the Institute
for Education Science, measures students’ achievement
after experiencing Success for All either in kindergarten
and first grade or first and second grades. A third
year of data is currently being collected.
Thirty-eight schools and nearly 4,000 students (grades
K-2) participated in this research, which was overseen
by a panel of prestigious researchers including Drs.
C. Kent McGuire, Steven Raudenbush, Rebecca Maynard,
Jonathan Crane, and Ronald Ferguson. The study includes
large cities (Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis) as well
as small towns, but the schools are consistently high
in poverty. Approximately 74% of the students participate
in the federal free lunch program. Students are ethnically
diverse; 57% of the sample is African American, 29%
is Caucasian, and 11% of the sample is Hispanic.
The study results were presented at the recent meeting
of the American Educational Research Association in
Montreal.
More than 1,200 schools, mostly high-poverty Title I
schools, in 47 states are currently implementing the
program with external assistance provided by the not-for-profit
Success for All Foundation. The intervention is purchased
as a comprehensive package, which includes materials,
training, ongoing professional development, and a “blueprint”
for implementing and sustaining the model. Schools that
elect to adopt Success for All implement a schoolwide
program for students in grades pre-K to five that organizes
resources to attempt to ensure that every child will
reach the third grade on time with adequate basic skills
and will continue to build on those skills throughout
the later elementary grades. Rather than remediation,
the program emphasizes prevention and early, intensive
intervention designed to detect and resolve reading
problems as early as possible, before they become serious.
Success for All is the most highly researched reading
program in the United States. Rigorous studies comparing
Success for All to matched control groups have found
strong positive effects of Success for All on students’
reading achievement, as well as reductions in special
education placements, retentions, and other outcomes.
Of 46 experimental-control studies done on Success for
All and a closely related program, Roots & Wings,
30 were done by third parties. Numerous independent
reviews have concluded that the effects of Success for
All on student reading achievement have been convincingly
demonstrated in rigorous research. However, large-scale,
randomized experiments are the best way of determining
effectiveness. Success for All’s reading program
joins the ranks of such interventions as the Perry Preschool
Project as one of the few programs that pass muster
under such close scrutiny. Success for All Foundation
is grateful for the support of the US Department of
Education in financing this critical study.
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