Becoming Students’ Champion: How Miami-Dade Educators Support Student Success with Read 180 

Everyone needs a champion—a person who will see and believe in their potential, encourage them through challenges, and support them along the pathway to success. For many, a teacher is that person. 

Earlier this school year, HMH partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to host the Miami-Dade Principal Symposium. There we heard from a panel of three exemplary educators and some of the students they championed for. These educators shared how they guided and empowered students in becoming better readers and their students told of their transformative reading intervention journeys with Read 180. 

Consistency, reflection, and encouragement are key

Madge Alexandre from Lake Stevens Middle School saw phenomenal student gains while using Read 180, particularly with her eighth-grade student Maria, who was part of the symposium panel. In elementary school, Maria didn’t enjoy reading. But with the help of Read 180 and Ms. Alexander, Maria was able to focus on what she was reading which helped her understand the words on the page. Maria also realized that the skills she developed in her intensive reading class could be applied to other subjects, like civics.

Ms. Alexandre’s success with the Read 180 program really boiled down to three key factors: consistency, reflection, and encouragement. The consistent comprehension, fluency, and language instruction helped students put their skills into practice during regular independent reading time. As far as reflection, students in Ms. Alexandre’s class meet quarterly to discuss goals and progress. And throughout the year, Ms. Alexandre used Read 180 data points to encourage students and celebrate their successes. 

Through it all, Maria felt motivated to push forward and during the panel discussion, she shared inspiring words for other students who may find themselves in intensive reading class, “Some students don't get information the same way other students gain information, but it's all just about motivation, motivating yourself, trying to do the best you can.”

Ensuring students feel seen  

South Miami Senior High reading coach and teacher Sarah Caceres was approached by sophomore Italia for additional tutoring. Recently immigrated, Italia was a multilingual learner whose goal was to ace her exit exams. Ms. Caceres advocated for Italia to enter a Read 180 intensive reading class, where Italia’s literacy skills flourished. 

Both Ms. Caceres and Italia both attribute the success to a key component of the Read 180 program: small groups. Italia found that in the small groups, she was also able to build different literacy skills like vocabulary and fluency. During the panel she shared, “You're in a small group. It's not the whole class. You're separate from the classroom, you are focusing on Read 180. Read 180 not just helps you to read, but also focuses on vocabulary, fluency. And the segments help you not just to improve your reading skills, but also to understand more about the vocabulary because if you don't understand a word, you won't understand the whole paragraph.” 

Building connections comes first

Miami Southridge Senior High reading teacher Akeira Rolle’s secret sauce to reading success was building strong connections with students and families. Ms. Rolle noticed her ninth-grade student and star basketball player Quincy would come into her intensive reading class tired. Ms. Rolle soon realized Quincy’s sports schedule consisted of late-night games and early morning practices. Ms. Rolle started attending Quincy’s games, where she connected with his father. Soon after, they created a partnership to ensure Quincy was well rested to score big on any of his upcoming reading tests. 

Quincy excelled at his next exam and attributed his success to his teacher and the Read 180 program, “Ms. Rolle helped me because I have 6:00 AM practice and I'll be tired. And she does her best to make me feel comfortable. She's not like the ordinary teacher. And we we're put in small groups so we could stay active.” 

District-wide, Miami-Dade teachers see results with Read 180

Many educators and students across Miami-Dade are seeing great success with Read 180. A recent study conducted by Columbia University’s Consortium for Policy Research in Education examined the effects of Read 180 on student literacy development in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. They found that students placed into Read 180 outperformed a control group of students who weren’t placed into it.

In 2022, students were placed into Read 180 based on their state literacy assessment scores. In the graph below, the treatment group made up of those who scored below the indicated cutoff point are plotted on the left along the horizontal axis, and the control group of students who scored above the cutoff point are plotted on the right.

The vertical axis represents those students’ 2023 state literacy scores, measured relative to that year’s mean. On average, the higher that students scored in 2022, the higher they scored in 2023. Notice, however, what happens when two lines of regression are found: one for students below the cutoff point and another for those above it (highlighted in the rectangle). Students who were placed into Read 180 trend higher right at the cutoff point, and then there’s a discontinuous jump downward where the second line begins. In other words, students placed in Read 180 outperformed their comparably-scoring peers who weren’t placed into it.

With the help of intervention programs like Read 180, teachers can create a classroom environment that supports literacy development all while ensuring students feel empowered to succeed. 

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Learn how our reading intervention programs can accelerate growth of students who are reading below grade level.