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System 44: Bay City Public Schools

At a glance

  • Demonstrates a Rationale
  • Programs: System 44®, Read 180®
  • Subjects: Literacy Curriculum, Intervention Curriculum
  • Report Type: Efficacy Study
  • Grade Level: Elementary, Middle
  • Region: Midwest
  • District Urbanicity: Urban, Suburban
  • District Size: Medium
  • Implementation Model: 60-79 Minutes, 80+ Minutes
  • District: Bay City Public Schools, MI
  • Participants: N=129
  • Outcome Measure: Reading Inventory
  • Evaluation Period: 2009–2010
  • Study Conducted by: Scholastic Research

Read 180 now incorporates the comprehensive foundational literacy skills scope and sequence from System 44.

Overview

Strong literacy achievement for students with disabilities and at-risk youth.

Bay City Public Schools (BCPS) serves approximately 9,000 students in Grades K–12. The student population is composed of the following ethnicities: 86% White, 6% Hispanic, 4% African American, 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native, less than 1% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 2% unspecified. Nearly half (47%) of all students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

BCPS adopted System 44 to improve the foundational reading skills of elementary, middle, and high school students performing poorly on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS®), the Reading Inventory®, the Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP), and oral reading fluency and district benchmark data. BCPS prioritized placing students with disabilities and students who were receiving Title I funds, or who were otherwise designated as being at risk. During the 2009–2010 school year, System 44 was implemented at seven elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. The stand-alone implementation model varied by classroom, and was 45 to 90 minutes per day.

Results

During the 2009–2010 school year, Reading Inventory data was collected from 129 students in Grades 3–8. Dependent t-tests revealed that, overall, students demonstrated significant improvement on the Reading Inventory in Lexile® (L) score. On average, students enrolled in System 44 advanced from 117L in fall 2009 to 306L in spring 2010. The average 189L gain was statistically significant. These improvements were evidenced for both elementary and middle school students. Elementary students in Grades 3–5 gained an average of 217L, and middle school students in Grades 6–8 gained an average of 138L (Graph 1). Due to the success of the program, BCPS expanded the program to an additional middle and high school during the 2010–2011 school year.

2 1 Bay City Graph 1

GRAPH 1. Bay City Public Schools System 44 Students, Grades 3–8 (N=129)

Performance on Reading Inventory by School Level, 2009–2010

Note. The gains in Lexile were statistically significant for all students (t=12.03, p=.00), elementary students (t=10.90, p=.00), and middle school students (t=5.74, p=.00).