Research Reports
The R&D Undergirding BRI-ARI: SWRL
The
history of BRI-ARI and the R&D that led to its current status.
Click here for PDF download: 
Development of Initial READ
The documentation of the programmatic R&D from which the READ derives
is recorded in more than 100 technical publications and journal articles.
The inquiry involved a wide range of analytic and empirical investigations
designed to reduce the uncertainty associated with the development of effective
and economical resources for reliable instruction in reading.
The paper overviews the repeated cycles of classroom testing and revision of
program materials and procedures.
Click here for PDF download:
The Long-term Effects on High School Seniors
of Learning to Read in Kindergarten
Many people believe that,
over the long term, early-age reading instruction will have a negative
impact on children’s reading skills and attitudes. Accompanying this
belief are two others:
One, it doesn’t matter when formal reading instruction begins - since first grade
is traditional, start there.
Two, any gains a child makes in early-age reading instruction will be “washed
out” within a few years.
The study controverts both beliefs. Findings showed that instruction in Kindergarten
with the initial READ program resulted in lasting effects that were clearly evident
at the time the children had gone on to become high school seniors.
Click here for PDF download:
Making Change Happen: A new look at
Schooling Effects from Programmatic Research and Development
Why We Were Interested: Studies almost without exception
show a high relationship between socioeconomic status and reading achievement.
We believed that this was due to two considerations: weak reading instruction
and insensitive measures of achievement.
What We Did: The use of the initial READ program
in a large number of school districts provided the basis for the
study that was replicated over a 2 year period. Around 300 school
districts, 2000 schools, 4000 kindergarten classes and 100,000 pupils
participated for the full school year.
The instruction occurred under ordinary classroom conditions; the study
was completely unobtrusive. We gathered information on the ethnic and socioeconomic
status of pupils’ families, and teachers administered a “Criterion Exercise”
upon completion of each of 10 “Units” of instruction. Pupil scores on
the tests provided information both on the amount of instruction presented,
and on pupil performances. This information could then be arrayed by ethnic
and socioeconomic status. It could also be arrayed by teacher, school,
and LEA to determine the variability in these categories. The large population
made it possible to randomly sample large subsamples to confirm replicability.
The second year replication of the study yielded further confirmatory information.
What We Found Out: The data consistently supports the explanation
that performance variation was due to the number of days spent on instruction
during the year rather than from any biosocial characteristics.
The data indicate that the concept of 'educationally
disadvantaged' is a creation of manipulated and manipulable conditions under
the control of schools rather than the result of immutable genetic and environmental
factors.
Bottom Line: When teachers teach, students learn. But to find
out what has been taught, more sensitive indicators than prevailing instructionally-insensitive
tests must be used.
Click here for PDF download: