Other Report

This report from ACT, Inc., recommends that considerable experience with complex reading texts in high school is the key to the development of college-level reading skills, and is the clearest differentiator of students who are ready for the post-secondary world of college and/or work versus those who are not. The report also defines the types of materials that need to be included in all high school courses, and offers recommendations to educators and policymakers on how to help increase the number of high school graduates who are ready for college-level reading.

ACT’s report recommends that schools strengthen their core high school curriculum to better prepare students for post-secondary success. Even with a high school diploma, many students leave high school without the necessary skills that will assist them in college or the workforce and research demonstrates that students at all levels of achievement benefit from taking rigorous courses.

This study by Dr. Minda Aguhob of Scholastic Research & Validation examined the effects of READ 180 in high schools in Seminole County Public Schools. Researchers randomly assigned almost 300 9th and 10th grade students in 7 high schools to 12 READ 180 classrooms. Florida's Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Reading assessment results showed that after 6 months, 25% of READ 180 students showed an increase of at least one reading level. White students achieved greater gains than other racial subgroups; there were no significant differences by gender or socioeconomic status.

This matched quasi-experimental study compared 9th- and 10th-grade students in 2003–04 and 2004–05 who received READ 180 with students who did not receive the program. Overall, Read 180 students significantly outperformed their counterparts on reading tests. Further, subgroup analyses found that English language learner (ELL) READ 180 students performed better than an ELL comparison group on reading achievement.

Over the first five years of implementation, more than 1,200 special education students have participated in Scholastic READ 180 in the Des Moines Independent Community School District. During this period, district personnel have produced annual reports on student outcomes and they have collected evidence that indicates that the program has been implemented reasonably well across the district. This report builds on the school district’s reports and provides additional analyses that take advantage of the full complement of five-year longitudinal data.

This report is a review of studies examining the impact of reading programs on English language learners (ELLs). The studies focus on comparisons between bilingual and English-only programs as well as replicable models that have been evaluated with ELLs. Results of the review indicate that there were a limited number of high-quality studies. The limited evidence favors bilingual education.