Explore · I4I

New Chance

2008

New Chance is a comprehensive program for young welfare mothers (ages 16-22) who have dropped out of school, aiming to improve their employment potential and parenting skills. The program has two phases delivered over up to 18 months. In the first phase (five months or until GED completion), participants attend classes five days a week for six hours daily, receiving adult basic education, GED preparation, pre-employment skills training, and life skills training including health education, family planning, parenting education, and pediatric health services. In the second phase, participants receive occupational skills training, participate in internships, and receive job placement assistance from outside agencies. Throughout the program, participants have access to free child care and a case manager. Programs serve no more than 40 participants at a time to maintain a personal environment. Participation is voluntary and requires participants to be economically disadvantaged (typically receiving cash assistance), lack a high school diploma or GED certificate, and not be pregnant at program entry.

Adult Secondary Education

Peer Tutoring and Response Groups

2007

Peer Tutoring and Response Groups aims to improve the language and achievement of English language learners by pairing or grouping students to work on a task. The students may be grouped by age or ability (English-only, bilingual, or limited English proficient) or the groups may be mixed. Peer tutoring typically consists of two students assuming the roles of tutor and tutee, or coach and player roles. Peer response groups give four or five students shared responsibility for a task, such as editing a passage or reading and answering comprehension questions. Both peer tutoring pairs and peer response groups emphasize peer interaction and discussion to complete a task. Before implementing peer tutoring groups, students are trained to interact as tutor and tutee or to work in small groups. Specific instruction on tutoring procedures or how to assume individual roles in a group is required before implementing the routine use of this practice.

1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade

Enhanced Proactive Reading

2006

Enhanced Proactive Reading is a comprehensive, integrated reading, language arts, and English language development curriculum targeted to first-grade English language learners experiencing problems with learning to read through conventional instruction. The curriculum provides 120 daily lessons, each composed of 6-10 short activities, delivered throughout the school year to small groups of 3-5 students. Each lesson lasts approximately 50 minutes (40 minutes for lesson delivery and 10 minutes for oracy practice) and focuses on five content strands: phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, word recognition, connected text fluency, and comprehension strategies. Daily activities typically include playing word games designed to promote phonemic awareness, practicing letter-sound correspondence for letters or letter combinations, practicing writing letters, and learning the sound of a new letter or letter combination. Teachers' instructional practices may include visual aids, gestures, and facial expressions to clarify meaning while teaching vocabulary. Student responses are largely choral, with some individual work. Teachers model new content and monitor students' responses to and progress in the fast-paced lessons. The intervention is delivered in a pull-out setting by bilingual (Spanish/English) teachers as a supplement to regular reading instruction. Teachers received 12 hours of professional development prior to implementation and six hours after the intervention had been implemented for six weeks, along with frequent staff development sessions and on-site coaching.

1st Grade

ALAS

2006

ALAS (Spanish for 'wings') is a dropout prevention intervention for middle and high school students identified as at risk due to low academic performance and behavior problems. Each student is assigned a counselor/mentor who monitors attendance, behavior, and academic achievement period-by-period. The intervention consists of six strategies: monitoring attendance with required make-up time for absences; teaching students problem-solving, self-control, and assertiveness skills through 10 weeks of instruction using the ALAS Resilience Builder curriculum in the first year plus follow-up instruction; providing weekly and daily feedback from teachers to parents and students about classroom behavior and assignments; training parents in parent-child problem solving and school participation; providing recognition and bonding activities; and connecting students and families with community services. ALAS is delivered on the school campus by a team of supervisors, counselors/mentors, volunteers, and clerical staff across multiple years. Staff and teachers receive training to deliver the problem-solving skills curriculum.

7th Grade

Reading Apprenticeship®

2023

Reading Apprenticeship® is a professional development program for teachers in middle schools, high schools, and community colleges across content areas (English, mathematics, science, and social studies). The program trains teachers to model reading comprehension strategies and help students practice these strategies in their classrooms, with the goal of improving student literacy skills and social-emotional learning outcomes such as belonging, social awareness, growth mindset, and self-efficacy. Teachers participate in professional development courses (Reading Apprenticeship® Essentials I and II) delivered either online (nine 2-hour sessions) or in-person (3- to 10-day trainings), followed by on-site coaching. In the five studies reviewed, teachers typically received a 5-day introductory training in the summer before implementation (or 3 days for one package), with follow-up training and support throughout the school year including monthly professional learning community meetings, teacher leader meetings, weekly calls/emails, or periodic interviews. Teachers then implement Reading Apprenticeship® instructional strategies with their students over the course of one school year (with some students exposed for 2 years in two studies).

7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

Reading Recovery

2023

Reading Recovery is a supplemental literacy intervention for first-grade students with low literacy achievement. The program provides daily one-on-one tutoring sessions lasting 30 minutes each, delivered over 12 to 20 weeks by specially trained Reading Recovery teachers. Each lesson is tailored to individual student needs based on ongoing observations and assessments of student strengths and weaknesses. Instruction incorporates phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, writing, oral language, and motivation as needed. Students are pulled out of regular non-literacy instruction during school hours while continuing to participate in their classroom's typical literacy instruction. Teachers must complete a full academic year of graduate-level training under a registered Reading Recovery teacher leader, including a weeklong training on administering the Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement screening assessment, ongoing professional development sessions (at least six times per year), and supervised practice implementing the intervention with students.

1st Grade

Read, Write & Type!™

2007

Read, Write & Type!™ Learning System is a software program with supporting materials designed to teach beginning reading skills by emphasizing writing as a way to learn to read. The program targets six- to nine-year-old students who are just beginning to read and for students who are struggling readers and writers. The program consists of 40 lessons that explicitly teach one of the 40 English phonemes through game-like computer activities with animated characters. Students work in groups of three for four 50-minute sessions per week from October through May. A trained teacher devotes approximately half of each session to direct instruction leading students in warm-up activities outlined in the teacher's manual, and for the remainder of the session students work individually on the computer practicing the same skills. The program includes an activity book with corresponding lessons, Power Fountain activity for practice, and E-mail Tower for simulated e-mail writing practice. Teachers received training for the intervention prior to implementation.

Success Boston Coaching

2020

Success Boston Coaching is a coaching intervention for students who are traditionally underrepresented in college (low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color) to help them transition from high school to college and progress in college. Students are paired with a dedicated coach starting as early as the spring of their senior year of high school and receive one-on-one coaching through their first two years in college. Coaching is delivered by nonprofit partner organizations through in-person, phone, email, social media, and text communications. Students' one-on-one interactions with their coaches may range from three to 15 times per year and last between 25 and 40 minutes. The intervention includes one-on-one transition coaching, financial aid information and nudges (including text messaging reminders), and may also include tutoring, career readiness support, and financial support such as scholarships, transportation subsidies, and funding for school-related materials and supplies. Coaches receive professional development training on topics including financial aid, coaching styles, building relationships with students, and student engagement.

12th Grade, Postsecondary

Start Making a Reader Today® (SMART®)

2007

Start Making a Reader Today® (SMART®) is a volunteer tutoring program for students in grades K-2 who are at risk of reading failure. The program is implemented in schools where at least 40% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Volunteer tutors read one-on-one with students twice a week for 30 minutes per session throughout the school year. Typically, one volunteer works with two children on four types of activities: reading to the child, reading with the child, re-reading with the child, and asking the child questions about what has been read. Each student also receives two new books per month to encourage families to read together. Volunteers undergo 1-2 hours of training that provides an introduction to the program and to reading strategies instruction, using a handbook that outlines the four SMART® reading strategies.

1st Grade

Stepping Stones to Literacy

2007

Stepping Stones to Literacy (SSL) is a supplemental curriculum designed to promote listening, print conventions, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and serial processing/rapid naming for kindergarten and older preschool students who are underachieving readers. Students participate in 10- to 20-minute daily lessons delivered in small groups or individually. The curriculum consists of 25 lessons totaling 9-15 hours of instructional time. Teachers use a model-lead-test instructional format, guiding students through four to six sequenced activities per lesson. The curriculum includes a lesson book with a section on serial rapid automatic naming activities and instructional prompts in English and Spanish.

Kindergarten