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Challenging the Autonomous Wall: Literacy Work in an Urban High School

At a glance

  • Demonstrates a Rationale
  • Programs: Read 180®, System 44®
  • Subjects: Intervention Curriculum, Literacy Curriculum
  • Report Type: Efficacy Study, Publication from External Organization, Study Conducted by Third Party
  • Grade Level: Middle, High
  • Region: Northeast
  • Population: Free or Reduced-Price Lunch
  • Race/Ethnicity: Black, Hispanic
  • District Urbanicity: Urban
  • District Size: Large
  • Implementation Model: 60-79 Minutes, A/B Model
  • District Name: East High School, Rochester, NY
  • Evaluation Period: 2014–2019
  • Study Conducted By: University of Rochester

Abstract

Researchers at the University of Rochester explored how one urban high school in upstate New York under threat of state closure developed a multifaceted literacy program—including Read 180 and System 44—to transform the teaching and learning of literacy in a university-school partnership over a five-year period. Analyses of ethnographic and quantitative school data illustrated the evolution of the district’s literacy program implementation and their understanding of their students’ literacy needs. Read 180 data indicated that the school was able to reduce the percentage of students in the group reading far below grade level from 83.7% to 18.6%. One ninth-grade student said, “Before I didn’t see myself as a reader, but now I see myself as a published author.” For more details on the study, please read the full report.