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Initial Findings

Findings From Demonstration Project: 1999-2001

The Collaborative Language and Literacy Instruction Project is a comprehensive literacy project that has narrowed the gap between students at-risk for literacy failure, and students who were not at-risk for literacy failure in its first biennium of operation (Pallante, 2001, Pallante & Porche, in preparation).

The CLLIP employed extensive accountability measures in order to document the literacy growth of students, teachers, administrators, and parents.

The combined results of the CLLIP's gain scores, regression analysis, growth modeling, survey results, anecdotal feedback, video taped recordings, and multi-level capacity provides compelling evidence that the CLLIP was a significant success in the first biennium of operation.

Initial documentation of how students improved their literacy competencies, and how teachers and parents were satisfied with program design and operation, will be used to strengthen the initiative's SBR approach to language and literacy learning in the next biennium.

The CLLIP offers policy makers valuable insight into an effective literacy reform model closely aligned with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Governor of Ohio's literacy reform principles, Ohio's Strategic Plan, the Ohio Reads Initiative, and the newly created Ohio Literacy Initiative.

The CLLIP demonstrated how to initiate literacy reform through intensive, systematic, and replicable literacy training, professional development, language-based assessment, best-practice interventions, and research-based accountability measures.

Results compiled from at least two different external evaluators, substantiated that at-risk students made significant gains in reading, writing, and oral language performance, and that stakeholders were highly supportive of the CLLIP having tripled the scope of the project (on average) at their own expense.

Kindergarten Results. Kindergarten students who were most at-risk at the beginning of the year made the greatest gains in reading by the end of the year, and over half the students who were at-risk after pretesting were no longer at risk when posttested. Altogether, 281 children participated, including 202 in the intervention group and 79 in the control group. The CLLIP's focused parent-child intervention coupled with teacher training in language and literacy instruction demonstrated how kindergarten students could make significant gains in areas known to have a positive impact on literacy competence.

Third Grade Results. Data from 331 third graders was collected at pretest (fall) and posttest (spring). Analyses compared targeted CLLIP students who received direct instruction to students who received low level exposure to CLLIP. Results indicated that the at-risk CLLIP students receiving direct instruction made significantly greater gains than low-risk classmates in the areas of reading and writing. A review of the percentages of students moving out of risk status showed a substantial percent of the targeted CLLIP students reading at grade level at the end of the year.

Fourth Grade Results. Data from 397 fourth graders collected at pretest (fall) and posttest (spring) revealed that at-risk targeted CLLIP students began the year significantly behind their classmates, but at the end of the year had caught up to their non at-risk counterparts. In addition, these targeted CLLIP students made significantly greater gains than students in a matched control group in the areas of reading and oral language. Fourth grade CLLIP students showed statistically significant gains across the board in reading, writing, and oral language compared to controls.

Fifth Grade Results. Repeated measures ANOVA tests were useful in assessing pre- and posttest differences within the school year (described above). However, the true test of success of the CLLIP intervention was assessed using growth modeling techniques to determine the rate of student gains, and their ability to be sustained, over a longer time period. Data from 101 students were compiled at four time points, between the fall of fourth grade through the spring of fifth grade. Growth trajectories suggested evidence of a significant impact of CLLIP, as demonstrated in students' sustained gains in reading skills beyond 4th grade when direct intervention was no longer provided.

Findings from the Second Biennium: 2001-2002

The CLLIP intervention continued into its third year in the district described above and included an additional low wealth district with similar demographic characteristics. Preliminary results indicated that in both districts:

• Kindergarten students made substantial gains in reading and performed significantly better than matched controls. Students deemed at-risk in the CLLIP group at the beginning of the year were reading well into first grade level by the end of year, surpassing even non-risk control students, on average.
• First Grade students also made substantial gains in reading, with at-risk CLLIP students performing as well as non-risk control students by the end of the year.
• Fourth Grade students in the CLLIP tested significantly higher in reading outcomes compared to matched controls.

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