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Number
of Schools: There are currently 1231 schools
implementing the Success for All reading program. As
of Fall 2004, all 50 states will have Success for All
schools.
Program
Description: The Success for All reading program
encompasses three individual curricula: KinderCorner
(Kindergarten), Reading Roots/Older Roots (1st grade
reading level), and Reading Wings (2nd grade reading
level and above.)
KinderCorner curriculum is straightforward
and developed for ease of use. Every teacher receives
a complete set of materials, including manipulatives
and more than 100 children’s books. Video/DVDs
enhance instruction of phonics and vocabulary. The school
year is completely planned and organized into 16 two-week
theme guides. Each theme guide includes daily lesson
plans and embedded assessments. KinderCorner is structured
for a full or half day Kindergarten class.
KinderCorner is based on constructivist
principles of developmentally appropriate practice,
the understanding that children learn by constructing
their own knowledge. By interacting with real objects
that are familiar to them and with the people around
them, children build on and change their existing understandings.
The principles of developmentally appropriate practices
are interwoven through the concrete, age-appropriate
activities that target nine developmental domains: Language/Literacy,
Math, Science, Physical, Creative, Emotional/Personal,
Interpersonal, Cognitive, and Social Studies. KinderCorner
objectives for each domain are listed in Appendix F.
The overall goal of KinderCorner is
to ensure that every child enters the first grade with
the language skills, early literacy, numeracy concepts,
social skills, self-help skills, and self-confidence
necessary for success in the elementary grades. KinderCorner
students are introduced to concepts initially, engage
in concrete activities related to those concepts, and
are re-introduced to them later before they are expected
to demonstrate mastery of those concepts.
Reading Roots is a 90-minute reading
period in which students are regrouped by reading level
across grade lines. In Reading Roots, students are formally
assessed on a regular, frequent interval, usually every
8 weeks. Assessment is a particularly important key
in assuring student success, as it helps us monitor
the progress of each student, to refocus lessons as
needed, and to catch students before they fall behind.
Students are regrouped according to their assessment
results and, if necessary, intervention action is taken
to ensure no child is left behind. The school’s
Assessment Team assesses Reading Roots students individually.
The Assessment Team is organized and led by the school’s
SFA Facilitator/Reading Coach and is made up of librarians,
counselors, music teachers, or others to help maintain
the objectivity of the testing.
There are four components to the Reading
Roots program for beginning readers: FastTrack Phonics
for Roots, Shared Story Lessons, STaR, and Language
Links. These four program components provide a strong
and comprehensive base for students’ literacy
and foster their love of reading through rich literature
experiences, oral language development, thematically
focused writing instruction, opportunities to read real
decodable stories, and phonics practice.
Reading Wings, Success for All’s
upper-elementary reading program, typically starts as
soon as a reading group completes Reading Roots. Reading
Wings is designed to build on the solid base of decoding
and comprehension skills established in the Reading
Roots. Reading Wings processes teach strategies for
reading, extend reading comprehension skills, enhance
written expression, promote oral language proficiency,
develop fluency, develop listening comprehension skills,
encourage cooperative learner, and foster the love of
learning. Students who have completed Reading Roots
have solid word-attack skills, but need to build on
this foundation to learn to understand and enjoy increasingly
more complex material.
In Reading Wings, as in Reading Roots,
students are formally assessed on a regular, frequent
interval, usually every 8 weeks. Assessment is a particularly
important key in assuring student success, as it helps
us monitor the progress of each student, to refocus
lessons as needed, and to catch students before they
fall behind. Students are regrouped according to their
assessment results and, if necessary, intervention action
is taken to ensure no child is left behind.
Students in Reading Wings, as in Reading Roots, are
regrouped across grade lines according to their reading
level, and then assigned to four- or five-member Cooperative
Learning teams that are heterogeneous in performance
level, gender, age, and ethnic background. The classes
follow a cycle of instruction that involves direct instruction,
team practice, independent practice, peer pre-assessment,
assessment, and team recognition based on the learning
of all team members.
Intensive Instruction for Students
Performing Below Grade Level: Success for All’s
goal is to have students reading at or below grade level
by age 8. However, due to a transient population, or
simply because a school is new to SFA, many schools
struggle with students who read below grade level. For
most students, a high-quality implementation of the
Success for All curriculum, combined with the support
of tutoring, is sufficient for them to be successful.
Success for All has developed and implemented many strategies
to help students performing below grade level. Careful
placement, frequent assessment, accelerated pace-depending
on age, and one to one tutoring are required.
English
Language Learners: The program has been especially
effective in increasing reading achievement of English
Language Learners (ELL), English as a Second Language
and Bilingual students, as documented in numerous studies
(Slavin & Madden, 1999; Nunnery, Slavin, Madden,
Ross, Smith, Hunter & Stubbs, 1996; Calderon, Hertz-Lazarowitz
& Slavin, 1998; Ross, Nunnery & Smith 1996;
Dianda & Flaherty, 1995; and Hurley, Chamberlain,
Slavin and Madden, 2001.)
Special
Education: Success for All both reduces the need
for special education services (by raising the reading
achievement of very low achievers) and reduces special
education referrals and placements. Students will have
special needs, no matter the program. Success for All
has had remarkable outcomes for special needs students
through its strategies for serving this important population.
Many SFA schools have reported excellent success as
they have “mainstreamed” their identified
special education students, and the effectiveness of
this strategy has been documented in many research reports
(Ross, Smith, Casey, and Slavin, 1995; Smith, Ross,
and Casey, 1994; Slavin, 1996).
Assessments:
While individually-administered assessments are far
more accurate that district-administered tests and much
more sensitive to real reading gains, educators usually
want to know the effects of innovative programs on the
kinds of group-administered standardized tests for which
they are held accountable. Success for All continually
evaluates this data to ensure the continued growth and
success of its students and schools as a whole. Across
the United States, Success for All elementary schools
consistently make substantially greater gains than other
elementary schools on accountability measures such as
state and national tests.
Research:
Success for All is among the most extensively evaluated
of all comprehensive school reform programs. More than
50 studies, conducted by researchers in many locations,
have documented the impact of Success for All on student
reading success and avoidance of special education placements,
retentions, and other outcomes (see Slavin & Madden,
2001 a, b). Independent reviews have concluded that
the effects of Success for All on student reading achievement
have been convincingly demonstrated in rigorous research.
David Pearson
and Steven Stahl (2002), under funding from the
Ohio Department of Education, conducted a review of
research on reading reform models. Among these, Success
for All was the only comprehensive classroom program
to receive the maximum possible rating for “Evidence
of Effectiveness.”
The American
Institutes for Research (Herman, 1999) carried
out a review of research on 24 comprehensive school
reform models. Success for All was one of only two elementary
models (Direct Instruction was the second) that received
the maximum rating for “Evidence of positive effects
on student achievement.”
The Thomas
B. Fordham Foundation (Traub, 1999) carried out
a review of 10 comprehensive reform models and also
concluded that Success for All and Direct Instruction
had the strongest evidence of effectiveness. A meta-analysis
of research on 29 comprehensive reform models by Borman,
Hewes, Rachuba, & Brown (2002) categorized Success
for All as one of only three “proven models.”
The others were Direct
Instruction and the School Development Project.
These reviews reflect the large number
of rigorous studies, involving comparisons of Success
for All and matched control groups over periods of 1
- 6 years, that have found significant positive effects
of Success for All on student reading achievement and
other outcomes. The fact that studies have been conducted
by a variety of researchers also contributes to the
confidence with which the reviewers support the achievement
effects of
Success for All.
For more information, please
contact Cheryl Sattler, Education Policy and Constituent
Relations Manager, at 1-800-548-4998, ext. 2583.
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