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The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.

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Program Description

Overview Save the Children’s Model Literacy Initiative supports afterschool and in-school programming designed to improve reading skills among struggling students in grades K–6. Programs are in rural locations in the states of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Start Date Fall 2003
Scope national
Type afterschool
Location rural
Setting public school
Participants kindergarten through elementary school students
Number of Sites/Grantees 118 sites in 2008–2009; 147 sites in 2009–2010
Number Served 12,001 youth across all 118 sites (2008–2009); 11,082 youth across the 122 study sites (2009¬–2010)
Components The initiative includes two primary “Literacy Blocks”: Emergent Readers (ER) and Developing Readers (DR). ER serves children in kindergarten and first grade during and/or after school. It includes an extended read-aloud with developmentally appropriate follow-up activities, a reading-together period, and hands-on learning to support growth in phonemic awareness, letter recognition, sound–symbol correspondence, and beginning sight words. When assessments show a child has successfully mastered ER, the child moves on to DR, which targets children in grades 2–6 and takes place during and/or after school. The central component of DR is a guided independent reading program (GIRP), which uses Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader books and software to provide regular opportunities for children to read books at an appropriate difficulty level for their reading skill level. As part of the Accelerated Reader program, children can read a book independently or with a teacher, or listen to the book being read aloud. In addition to GIRP, the DR Literacy Block also includes fluency-building support and read-alouds. Some schools also offer DR participants an in-school program that provides small-group tutorials that target phonics, sight words, vocabulary, and comprehension growth.
Funding Level $13.5 million for 2009–10
Funding Sources Various grantors to Save the Children.
Other Save the Children and Renaissance Learning provided training, technical assistance, and ongoing support in literacy services to literacy program staff.


Evaluation

Overview This evaluation examined the literacy programs’ implementation, as well as outcomes related to participants’ literacy gains.
Evaluators Policy Studies Associates, Inc.
Evaluations Profiled Results from the 2008–09 School Year

Results from the 2009–10 School Year

Results from the Comparative Pilot Study, 2009–10
Evaluations Planned Annual evaluations continue to be conducted.
Report Availability White, R. N., & Reisner, E. R. (2007). Model literacy programs. Save the Children: Evaluation findings from the 2005–06 school year. Washington, DC: Policy Studies Associates. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED498796

Palmiter, A. S., Arcaira, E. R., White, R. N., & Reisner, E. R. (2009). The literacy programs of Save the Children: Results from the 2008–09 school year. Washington, DC: Policy Studies Associates. Available at: www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED508135

White, R. N., White, E. A., Palmiter, A. S., & Reisner, E. R. (2010). The literacy programs of Save the Children: Results from the 2009–10 school year. Washington, DC: Policy Studies Associates.

Romash, R. A., White, R. N., & Reisner, E. R. (2010). Save the Children Literacy Programs: Results from the comparative pilot study, 2009–10. Washington, DC: Policy Studies Associates.


Contacts

Evaluation Andrea Palmiter
Research Analyst
Policy Studies Associates, Inc.
1718 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
Tel: 202-939-5332
Fax: 202-939-5732
Email: apalmiter@policystudies.com
Program John Farden
Director, Programs and Results
Save the Children
2000 L Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-640-6614
E-mail: jfarden@savechildren.org
Profile Updated March 31, 2011

Evaluation 3: Results from the Comparative Pilot Study, 2009–10


Evaluation Description

Evaluation Purpose To examine the impact of participation in the DR program on literacy performance.
Evaluation Design

Quasi-Experimental: Data were collected on a sample of 1,249 DR program participants and 1,249 nonparticipants from 18 schools located in 9 states across the country. Program participants were matched to nonparticipants based on grade level, school attended, and baseline reading assessment scores. Of study participants, 19% were in second grade, 19% were in third grade, 27% were in fourth grade, 22% were in fifth grade, and 12% were in sixth grade. In addition, 77% of the study sample scored below grade-level on their initial reading assessment.

Data were collected on study participants through STAR Reading assessments and measures of Accelerated Reader activities as part of the DR program throughout the year. For the STAR Reading assessment, analyses of improvements were limited to children who completed two assessments at least 90 days apart. Measures of Accelerated Reader participation included: number of books read, percent of Accelerated Reader quizzes passed, average percent of questions correct per Accelerated Reader quiz, average book level, percent of books read independently, and percent of books read that were nonfiction.  Accelerated Reader quiz data were available for 1,033 participants and 1,229 matched nonparticipants.
Data Collection Methods

Secondary Source/Data Review: The number of books read was calculated for each DR participant. After completing a book, children took an Accelerated Reader quiz on that book’s content. Participants who answered 60% of the questions about the book correctly passed the quiz. Quiz results helped track changes in reading proficiency and identify additional books appropriate for the child’s skill level. The goal was for participants to pass at least 85% of the quizzes they attempted and to read an average of 25 books or more at each site during the school year.

Test/Assessments: The STAR Reading assessment measures reading proficiency. Results are presented as scaled scores, grade equivalents, percentiles, and normal curve equivalents (NCEs). An increase of more than 2 NCEs is considered a meaningful increase by Renaissance Learning, the publisher of the STAR Reading assessment. The child’s grade level and month of school within that grade are factored into the scores.


Findings:
Summative/Outcome Findings

Academic Participants showed significantly larger gains (p <. 05) in STAR Reading scores than matched nonparticipants both overall (gains of 6.5 vs. 0.6 NCEs), and for each grade (a difference of 5 NCEs on average for each grade). The size of the change in participants’ STAR Reading scores overall, compared to that of nonparticipants, indicated an additional average gain for participants equivalent to the gain expected from three months of schooling. In addition, a significantly larger percentage of program participants than matched nonparticipants achieved a gain of 2 NCEs or more (60% vs. 41%, p < .05).

Program participation had a significant, positive relationship with a child’s performance on the final STAR Reading assessment (p = .00). Overall, participation in the program was associated with an additional 3.8 NCEs on the final STAR Reading score. This significant relationship held at every grade when analyzed on a grade-by-grade basis.

A significantly larger improvement was seen in the proportion of participants performing at or above grade level on the STAR Reading assessment compared to the proportion of nonparticipants performing at or above grade level (gain of 10% vs. 1%, p < .05). In addition, among those scoring below grade level on their initial STAR Reading assessment, significantly more participants improved their scores enough to be classified as performing at or above grade level than did their matched nonparticipants (18% vs. 12%, p < .05).

Five measures of Accelerated Reader participation were found to have significant positive correlations with changes in STAR Reading assessment scores: number of books read, percent of quizzes passed, average percent of questions correct per quiz, percent of books read independently, and percent of books read that were nonfiction (p < .05 for each). One measure, the average book level, showed a significant negative relationship (p < .05) with STAR Reading scores (i.e. those who read lower-level books achieved larger gains).

Over the school year, program participants read significantly more books than did nonparticipants (51 books vs. 37 books, p < .05).

Program participants passed a higher proportion of the quizzes taken for the books they read, on average, than did nonparticipants (93% vs. 80%). This pattern was observed at each grade level, and the differences were significant (p < .05).

Literacy program participants correctly answered a higher proportion of the individual quiz items than did matched nonparticipants (87% vs. 76%). Grade-by-grade analysis shows that this pattern occurred across grades and was significant at every grade level (p < .05 for each).

Nonparticipants read books rated a higher reading level than those read by participants (3.2 vs. 2.8). This pattern held true for grades 3–6 when the data were analyzed on a grade-by-grade basis. The differences were significant (p < .05).

Participants read 93% of the books they completed over the school year independently, while matched nonparticipants read 75% of their books independently. This pattern was observed at each grade level, and the differences were significant (p < .05).

A larger proportion of the books read by participants were nonfiction than were books read by matched nonparticipants (35% vs. 24%). This pattern was found at each grade level, and all differences were significant (p < .05).

Students who read a greater number of books (p = .04), answered a higher percent of Accelerated Reader quiz questions correctly (p = .00), read greater percentages of nonfiction books (p = .03), read higher-level books (p = .00), and scored higher on the initial STAR Reading assessment (p = .00) all had higher scores on the final assessment, even after all other variables in the model were held constant.

Participants in lower grades achieved significantly larger gains in STAR Reading scores than did those in higher grade levels (p = .00).

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Published by Harvard Family Research Project