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>

This study sought to find out if there was a correlation between the Spring 2008 Star Math scores and Spring 2008 WASL math scores. A significant correlation between the WASL math test and the Star math assessment was found (r=.67).Citation: Reibel, T. (2009). Exploring the correlation between the Star Math test and the WASL Math Assessment at Wishkah Elementary (Unpublished master's project). Heritage University, Toppenish, WA.The full report is available online: <https://myheritage.heritage.edu/ICS/icsfs/Reibel_Tove_2009.pdf?target=36099166-45b8-4f59-80f4-6416de5148ad>.

This paper contains the research foundation for The Word Up Project,, avocabulary program designed for students in grade 3 to 8.The full report is available online: <https://flocabulary.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/flat/the-word-up-project-research-base.pdf>

From the abstract: "With the failure of the legislative branch to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law in 2007 and recent reports that more schools than ever are failing to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress, educators are reviewing practices and curriculum. As a result of federal and state laws, it is necessary to identify an accurate predictor of student achievement prior to the administration of the state-mandated test. For this study, student samples were drawn from sixth, seventh, and eighth grade populations of a Northwest Arkansas Middle School. Samples were separated by grade level and ranked according to the grade equivalency on the fall Star Math pre-test and the scores on the spring Arkansas Benchmark Test. A quasi-experimental design was implemented to test both the magnitude and reliability of the independent variable, the Star Math test, on the dependent variable, the Arkansas Benchmark Test. A Pearson r correlation was calculated in each grade level over a three-year period for the relationship between the Star Math and Arkansas Benchmark. A strong positive correlation was found between the ordinal ranks of grade equivalence on the Star Math pre-test and the ordinal ranks of the averaged raw score percent on the Arkansas Benchmark Test. Furthermore, a coefficient of determination, a line of best fit, an analysis of variance (ANOVA), and an Omega-squared were used to determine the statistical significance and develop a triangulation of data. Further study is recommended to predict a specific benchmark score based on a Star Math grade equivalency."Citation: Conner, P. A. (2009). The Star Math test as a predictor of Arkansas Benchmark Test scores. Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 3372323). The full report is available online: <https://search.proquest.com/docview/305083252>.

From the Abstract: "A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted of Gordon, Kane, and Staiger's (2006) proposal to raise student achievement by identifying and replacing the bottom quartile of novice teachers, using value-added assessment of teacher performance. The cost effectiveness of this proposal was compared to the cost effectiveness of voucher programs, charter schools, a 10% increase in per pupil expenditure, increased educational accountability (defined as the implementation of high school exit exams), comprehensive school reform, class size reduction, high-quality preschool, and rapid assessment, where student performance in math and reading is rapidly assessed 2-5 times per week. The most cost-effective approach for raising student achievement is rapid assessment, which is approximately one magnitude (10 times) more cost effective than comprehensive school reform, two magnitudes more cost effective than class size reduction or a 10% increase in per pupil expenditure or Gordon et al.'s (2006) proposal or increased educational accountability, three magnitudes more cost effective than voucher programs or high-quality preschool, and four magnitudes more cost effective than charter school." Citation: Yeh, S. S., & Ritter, J. (2009). The cost-effectiveness of replacing the bottom quartile of novice teachers through value-added teacher assessment. Journal of Education Finance, 34(4), 426-451.