Let's Know! is a language-focused curriculum supplement developed through the Institute of Education Sciences' Reading for Understanding initiative aimed at supporting prekindergarten through grade 3 students' listening and reading comprehension. The current study reports results concerning the impacts of 2 instantiations of Let's Know! on…

Policy makers have struggled to find successful approaches to address concentrated, persistent low school achievement. While NCLB and the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program have devoted significant time and attention to turnaround, very little empirical evidence substantiates whether and how these efforts work. This study employs a comparative…

Enrollment in state-funded pre-K programs prior to kindergarten entry has become increasingly common. As each state develops its own model for pre-K, rigorous studies of the impacts of state-specific programs are needed. This study investigates impacts of the Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) initiative at kindergarten entry using a…

A one-group repeated-treatment design was used to examine the academic year and summer oral reading fluency outcomes for students attending a district-sponsored summer literacy program (N = 250). Piecewise growth models applied to longitudinal data obtained during the first and second grade and over the course of the intervening summer revealed…

The findings reported here describe the effects from a cohort-controlled trial of Making Choices (MC), a universal social-emotional skills training program. From teacher ratings, 688 third-grade students were classified into 4 risk profiles using measures of aggression, social competence, classroom concentration, and peer relations. High-risk…

This study examined the efficacy of a core kindergarten mathematics program, ELM, a 120-lesson comprehensive curriculum providing instruction in (a) number operations, (b) geometry, (c) measurement, and (d) vocabulary. ELM is designed to address the learning needs of all students, including at-risk students in the general education or Tier I…

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 examined the impact of Oregon Reading First on student reading outcomes. Outcomes in schools that began Reading First implementation in 2003-2004 (Cohort A) were compared to outcomes in schools that began Reading First implementation in 2005-2006 (Cohort B). The primary hypothesis, that experienced Cohort A schools would outperform…

Compares the long-term performance of the first three cohorts of Follow Through children from P.S. 137 (the Bainbridge School in Brooklyn's Ocean Hill-Brownsville section) with a control group of nonparticipating children from a school a few blocks away. (RH)

Describes the Direct Instruction model, which has been effective in teaching mathematics to disadvantaged students. Results of the national Follow Through and the University of Oregon evaluations are reported, and implications of the findings for improving classroom practices are discussed. (RH)

Results of this 2-year study of an Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VII demonstration project indicate that teaching a class of 43 second-grade children from a small rural community in west Texas in large groups is as effective as an individualized approach to bilingual education. (Author/RH)

This consideration of effective ways to educate low-income, educationally at-risk students in kindergarten documents an approach that has been effective in accelerating academic growth. Results of a longitudinal study of children who received Direct Instruction in primary school indicated benefits when participants were in the ninth grade. (RH)

Examined the effectiveness of a course conducted during the first two weeks of school to teach Russian first graders to cooperate with each other and their teacher. Results indicated that students in the experimental groups improved in terms of their ability to account for partners' actions, initiative, cooperative action, conflict resolution,…

A series of three related studies provided evaluative information concerning the Madeline Hunter model of the Program for Effective Teaching implementation in South Carolina. Primary results showed that training was well received by the teachers, that follow-up coaching was limited in quantity and not always consistent with Hunters's…