Eight grants totaling $30 million were awarded by the U.S. Department of Education for the 2006-07 school year to support the literacy achievement of middle and high school students, especially “struggling readers” (students two or more years below grade level in reading). The goals of the Striving Readers program are to: improve the quality of literacy instruction across the curriculum; enhance the literacy skills of struggling readers; and help build a strong, scientific, research base around specific strategies that improve adolescent literacy skills.
Research for Better Schools has been contracted to evaluate Memphis’ Striving Readers Program (MSRP). This evaluation study of the intervention for struggling readers, the Read 180 program, will include a randomized control trial (RCT). The evaluation of whole-school strategies, the Memphis Content Literacy Academy, will also include a randomized control trial. Materials from this project are available on the RBS Web site and include resources in reading, professional development and project evaluation, as well as descriptive information on the Memphis project.
For more information, link to MSRP under the Center for Research and Evaluation Studies.