DETAILS: Location: McKinney, Texas; Design: Independent, quasi-experimental, peer-reviewed; Sample: nine elementary and two middle schools, and matched controls; Measures: Texas Learning Index (TLI), Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS); Duration: 5 years. RESULTS: This retrospective, longitudinal study compared student achievement as measured by the TLI and TAAS between students using Renaissance progress-monitoring tools and matched controls. Researchers found statistically significant, positive effects of Accelerated Reader/Accelerated Math software and best practices on reading and mathematics achievement for elementary students, and on mathematics achievement for middle school students. Students in high-implementation schools scored even higher than comparison schools or low-implementation schools. PLEASE NOTE: The Summary of two publications: 1) peer-reviewed journal article: Nunnery, J. A., & Ross, S. M. (2007). The effects of the School Renaissance program on student achievement in reading and mathematics. Research in the Schools, 14(1), 40-59., and 2) the technical report: Nunnery, J. A., Ross, S. M., & Goldfeder, E. (2003). The effect of School Renaissance on TAAS scores in the McKinney ISD. Memphis, TN: University of Memphis, Center for Research in Educational Policy. Is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R39640>. A copy of the Full Article is available online: <https://web.archive.org/web/20130722102850/http://www.memphis.edu/crep/pdfs/Effects_of_School_Renaissance-JournalArticle.pdf>. The Full Technical Report is available online: <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED500027.pdf>.

From the Abstract: "A cost-effectiveness analysis of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) program suggests that Board certification is less cost-effective than a range of alternative approaches for raising student achievement, including comprehensive school reform, class size reduction, a 10% increase in per pupil expenditure, the use of value-added statistical methods to identify effective teachers, and the implementation of systems where student performance in math and reading is rapidly assessed 2-5 times per week. The most cost-effective approach, rapid assessment, is three magnitudes as cost-effective as Board certification." Citation: Yeh, S. S. (2010). The cost-effectiveness of NBPTS teacher certification. Evaluation Review, 34(3), 220-241.

DETAILS: Location: Multiple districts in Southern states; Design: Reliability and validity research, single-group; Sample: Grades K-2; Measures: Star Early Literacy, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI), Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE); Duration: Cross-sectional. RESULTS: This research investigated the validity of the domain scoring approach to early literacy development. Students in grades K-2 were assessed on Star Early Literacy, a computer-adaptive test of early literacy skills. Using modern item response theory (IRT), items on a common scale were grouped into 41 specific skill sets. Student ability estimates were used to estimate each student's proficiency on the 41 skill sets based on the expected percent correct for each set of items. Students were also measured on the same domains of early literacy, phonemic awareness, phonics, and comprehension by 3 external measures: DIBELS, TPRI, and GRADE. Concurrent validity between the measures was moderate to high, and confirmatory factor analytic studies indicated the domain scores from Star Early Literacy were measuring similar constructs as the external measures. Overall evidence supported the use of domain scoring for making inferences about a student's early literacy skills. Reference: McBride, J. R., Ysseldyke, J., Milone, M., & Stickney, E. (2010). Technical adequacy and cost benefit of four measures of early literacy. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 25(2), 189-204. The journal article is available online: <https://www.proquest.com/docview/746766585?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true >. Also available: Betts, J., & McBride, J. (2007, April). Evidence for the reliability and validity of IRT-based domain scores of early literacy skills. Paper presented at National American Educational Research Association (AERA) National Conference, Chicago, IL. Email research@renaissance.com to request a copy of either study from the Renaissance Research Department. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) has wrtiten a summary of the journal article. The summary is available online: <http://ecs.force.com/studies/rstudypg?id=a0r700000008k54AAA>.

From the Abstract: "This article synthesizes findings regarding the development of competence and learned helplessness and factors influencing persistence and intrinsic motivation, suggests the process through which small differences in early achievement are magnified by the current structure of schools, and reviews evidence suggesting that the characteristics of a specific type of individualized instruction and assessment system may be especially suited to remediate these differences. Age-graded schools and group tests label students as 'below' and 'above' average, inadvertently demoralizing below-average students, depressing effort and achievement, and perpetuating the gap in achievement between poor students and their more affluent peers. Analysis of the research literature suggests that the psychological experience of school for both high and low achieving students may be altered through a structure where instruction is individualized, students are challenged at their own levels, and each student receives objective assessment information confirming that he or she is successfully advancing to higher levels." Citation: Yeh, S. S. (2010). Understanding and addressing the achievement gap through individualized instruction and formative assessment. Assessment in Education, 17(2), 169-182. Email research@renaissance.com to request the Full Peer-Reviewed Article from the Renaissance Research Department.

The Leadership and Learning Center was commissioned by the State of Nevada to conduct an in-depth evaluation of the programs implemented with Senate Bill 185 (SB 185) grant funds in the state's public schools and school districts. This interim report evaluates the effectiveness of programs, materials, and strategies for which SB 185 grants were utilized. The Leadership and Learning Center found that Accelerated Reader increased student reading achievement by an average of 10 percentage points. Email research@renaissance.com to request additional information about this study from the Renaissance Research Department.

In this independent, peer-reviewed journal article, researchers developed a way for school and district educators to evaluate the quality and usefulness of interim assessments. The evaluation criteria was applied to a favorable review of ABC Assessment's Early Literacy, Reading, and Math assessments (Renaissance's Star Early Literacy, Star Reading, and Star Math assessments). Citation: Li, Y., Marion, S., Perie, M., & Gong, B. (2010). An approach for evaluating the technical quality of interim assessments. Peabody Journal of Education: Issues of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations, 85(2), 163-185. Email research@renaissance.com to request information about this study from the Renaissance Research Department.

From the study: "The study followed a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design. Eight schools in six different states agreed to participate. One or more teachers in each of the eight schools agreed to useThe Word Up Project during the 2008-2009 academic year. The goal was to determine if the vocabulary achievement of students who received instruction using The Word Up Project increased significantly by the end of the school year."The full ssummary of this study is available online: <https://flocabulary.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/flat/efficacy-study-summary.pdf>

From the abstract: "This manuscript reviews research to date on the instructional use of reading management software programs (including Accelerated Reader). The manuscript provides an overview of these programs, including their history and diffusion; describes their theoretical basis; and examines research findings on reading management software in three key areas (program implementation, reading achievement, and student attitudes). High quality implementation at both the classroom and school level is critical to reading management programs' success. Additionally, careful attention should be given to the balance between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Parental involvement in reading may also play a pivotal role in the successful implementation of reading management programs. The authors conclude that more research is needed and especially longitudinal studies, to fully understand the impact of reading management programs." Reference: Hansen, L. E., Collins, P., & Warschauer, M. (2009). Reading management programs: A review of the research. Journal of Literacy and Technology, 10(3), 55-80.The Full Report is available online: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242092035_Reading_Management_Programs_A_Review_of_the_Research>.

From the abstract: There has been increased attention to the development of measures for assessing mathematical skill and knowledge in young children. Most of the evidence supporting these measures is consistent with Stage 1 research in the development of progress monitoring measures (Fuchs, 2004) and consists of investigation of technical features of performance at one point in time. The purpose of the current study was to move into Stage 2 research and examine sensitivity to growth over time of the Preschool Numeracy Indicators (PNIs; Floyd, Hojnoski, & Key, 2006) in a sample of Head Start preschoolers through a longitudinal design. Results indicated the PNI Oral Counting Fluency, One-to-One Correspondence Counting Fluency, Number Naming Fluency, and Quantity Comparison Fluency task scores are sensitive to growth over time and provide preliminary support for the promise of such measures in assessing early mathematical skill development. Consideration is given to implications for assessing early mathematical skill development in the context of general outcome measurement."Citation: Hojnoski, R. L., Silberglitt, B., & Floyd, R. G. (2009). Sensitivity to growth over time of the preschool numeracy indicators with a sample of preschoolers in Head Start. School Psychology Review, 38(3), 402-418.The research study is available online: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234630398_Sensitivity_to_Growth_Over_Time_of_the_Preschool_Numeracy_Indicators_With_a_Sample_of_Preschoolers_in_Head_Start>.

From the report: "Flocabulary, an educational publisher, contracted with the Educational Research Institute of America (ERIA) to conduct an instructional validation study of its grades 3 to 8 language arts program, The Word Up Project, in eight school sites across the country. Flocabulary sought to determine the extent to which The Word Up Project, a program designed to support students’ vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and critical thinking skills, improves students' language arts skills as measured by state language arts tests."The full ssummary of this study is available online: <https://flocabulary.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/flat/state-test-study-summary.pdf>

From the abstract: "Econometric studies suggest that student achievementmay be improved if high-performing teachers are substituted for low-performing teachers. Drawing upon a recent study linking teacher performance on licensure exams with gains in student achievement, an analysis was conducted to determine the cost-effectiveness of requiring teacher applicants to meet a minimum 1000 SAT test score requirement, while raising teacher salaries by 45 percent in order to maintain an adequate pool of candidates. Results indicate that the cost-effectiveness of this approach to raising teacher quality is substantially lower than the cost-effectiveness of a competing approach for raising student achievement, involving the implementation of systems that provide formative assessment feedback to students and teachers regarding student performance in math and reading. The implementation of formative assessment instead of less cost-effective approaches would help to achieve the important goal of raising math and reading achievement while using fewer resources. The savings in resources may then be used to achieve other important educational goals--those that are not well-addressed through formative assessment." Citation: Yeh, S. S. (2009). The cost-effectiveness of raising teacher quality. Educational Research Review, 4(3), 220-232. Email research@renaissance.com to request the Full Peer-Reviewed Article from the Renaissance Research Department.

"In the summer of 2009, Flocabulary conducted a pilot of The Word Up Project with After-School All-Stars, a national after-school program that serves underprivileged youth. This particular pilot was conducted at St. John's University and served children from the local community and the New York City Housing Authority.The 97 participants who completed the program were pre- and post-tested on 30 of the words. Since the 30 words were used in differing contexts on each of the tests, participants had to reveal competent understanding of the words' meanings by post-test time. The results indicated that participants increased from a mean of 13.64 words to 20.71 words at an average increase of 7.07 vocabulary words." The full report is available online: <https://flocabulary.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/flat/asany-assessment-flocabulary-2009.pdf>

DETAILS: Location: KY, AZ, CA, MS, SC, AR, CO, GA, NV, NM, LA, and TN; Design: Independent, correlational; Sample: 118 local model literacy initiative programs; Measure: Star Reading, Star Early Literacy; Duration: 1 school year. RESULTS: During the 2008-09 school year, Save the Children supported several local programs in its model literacy initiative. Twenty of the 118 sites continued to offer literacy programming begun in 2003-04 or 2004-05, fifty-one began operating during 2005-2006 or 2006-07, 19 during 2007-08, and 26 sites operated for the first time in 2008-09. Services at the 118 sites included the delivery of integrated in-school and afterschool literacy activities for children including using Accelerated Reader. This report describes implementation of the literacy model at each site, the characteristics of participating children, and the learning results achieved during 2008-09. During the 2008-09 school year, the proportion of participants reading at a level appropriate for their grade level or above increased. On the initial Star Reading test, 16% of students were at grade level or higher--a normal curve equivalent (NCE) score of 50 or more. The final Star Reading test showed that 29% were reading at grade level. The average pre-post change in Star Reading scores was 5.8 NCEs, which was statistically significant. AUTHORS: Andrea S. Palmiter, Erickson R. Arcaira, Richard N. White, and Elizabeth R. Reisner. Report available online: <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED508135.pdf>