Reading First in Pennsylvania: Achievement Findings after Five Years

Abstract

This article reports on the student achievement outcomes for third graders in Reading First (RF) schools in Pennsylvania over the five years of implementation for the group as a whole, for disaggregated groups of third graders, and for third graders who received reading instruction in RF schools for one, two, and three years. We also present a school-level growth measure for representing school improvement and for characterizing the success of RF in Pennsylvania. Results indicate that third-grade students in these RF schools are making substantially more progress in third-grade reading than are students in other schools in Pennsylvania, there is an increase of nearly 24% of students performing at proficient or advanced level over the five years, and the students in the below basic range on the achievement measure declined nearly 18%. Further, the disaggregated data show that the achievement gap, though not closed, was reduced for all groups of third graders. Finally, nearly 80% of the RF schools were successful in accomplishing the two goals of Reading First: an increase in the percentage of students at grade level, and a reduction in the percentage of students who were seriously below grade level.