Program Evaluation Critique Essay

In the primary grades, children should have a well-designed phonics program that promotes knowledge of letters, sounds, words, and phonological units (Dorn, Soffos. 2001. P. 21). The literacy coach should help the classroom teachers prepare for their literacy lessons by providing literary resources needed, modeling to show how certain components of the literacy block should look and making sure the teacher understands how to teach the skills they are working on at the time. For example, if a teacher is unsure how to effectively teach reading groups to beginner kindergarten readers, the literacy coach can model how to do so, provide the teacher with additional help and support, and even let the teacher observe other teachers teach. The literacy coach should also make sure the teachers have everything they need to assess students and that the teachers understand the importance of the assessments and how to get information from them to lead new

Some of the limitations included non randomized assignments and blinding was limited for scoring (but not for administrators). Since the study was done in a middle class suburb, the socio-economic diversity was limited. The Write Start program was limited to two teams which were trained; did not help with generalizability of the findings. The comparison instruction tool; WJIII had a ceiling effect in one of its measures.

In addition, we observed the age group of the mentees, because the community-wide initiative seeks to improve the third-grade reading proficiency of those enrolled in the program. As seen in figure 2, there were a majority (35%) of 6 year olds represented. There were also a substantial (32%) number of 7 year olds. Furthermore, there was a comparative population of males and females. (Figure 3)

READ 180 Next Generation is designed around common core and the rigor that comes with the Common Core initiative (Scholastic, 2014). In 2011 READ 180 was used by more than one million students every day, largely students from schools who have written in READ 180 to their school improvement documents (“Scholastic launches”, 2011). The program’s recommendations are to use READ 180 during a 90 minute reading block (Scholastic, 2014). According to Scholastic the program begins with whole group instruction for twenty minutes. Teachers are to begin the class using reading skills and strategies, academic vocabulary, writing, and grammar to the whole class. Students then work on the READ 180 software on computers where they follow a learning path, which allows them to work

On November 8th, I observed Mrs. Neher’s third grade reading class. My observation was focused upon her implementation of the SIOP models in the areas of strategies, interaction, practice and application. According to WIDA performance defections, this class is classified as developing though the students are for a split class of first and second graders ("WIDA Performance Definitions," n.d., expression 3).

Dave Koch became Executive Director of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle less than two years ago. Since he joining the organization Koch has promoted Performance Management and Sustainability Strategies. Utilizing skills learned in his Masters of Public Administration program and gained through educational and for-profit organizations, he is positioning IFFS to be a leader in nonprofit management practices. In our conversation with Koch, he shared that program evaluations are performed infrequently and when they are performed, focus on outputs more than outcomes.

100 middle school boys will receive tutoring services after school to improve their reading proficiency skill levels. Backfield in Motion will provide a Reading Specialist for one hour of one-on-one and small group instruction, four days per week. The expected outcome is for each student to improve their fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary skill development by 50% each

When the school year began Brando’s reading level was similar to that of a kindergarten student in the sixth month of school, which was captured on the STARS assessment test. Brando himself knew that one of his challenges was reading, thus, at the beginning of the school year, one of his classroom goals was to be a better reader. Similarly to Brando, my desire was for Brando to be a better reader along with my eight other students who were reading two or three grade levels below their actual grade.

These positive observations by teachers and parents along with high-quality developed instruction, resulted in the following measurable increases with literacy development. Pre/Post camp data yielded high results for our students in meeting their instructional goals. Of the 49 students attending the full camp, 93.8% increased by 10%

I have grown in this stage through field experiences in my graduate studies, such as first grade reading fluency. Correspondingly, I have grown through professional development which included an on-site Reading Coach Internship (Alabama Reading Academy), in which I actively participated in 30 hours of intensive training. This training included professional studies and on-site experience in collecting data, analyzing data, planning lessons based on data, and teaching the lessons in the classroom. Also, I completed training on the DIBELS assessment and mClass DIBELS training. Furthermore, I collaborated in professional learning communities with reading coaches from my school’s district along with nearby school

Project MORE is a tutoring program designed to improve a child’s reading over the course of a few months. In project MORE, the child will meet with a tutor three to four days a week for thirty minuets. Within this amount of time, the child will be removed from his or her classroom in order to receive additional individualized intervention. Project MORE has two reading interventions: Help One Student To Succeed (HOSTS) and the Reading- Tutors program. Both of these have the same goal of improving reading skills, build problem-solving skills, and improve the behavior, self- esteem and attitude of the child. The difference between each of these programs is the order in which they are done in. Additionally, project MORE is designed to support the reading that is being done within the general education classroom. The lessons that were taught during this period were composed of three

Careful analysis was done concerning the Communication Arts 2014 MAP scores for grade level E1 across District X. This data outlined the Average Points earned for item benchmarks and included a full description of each. Each content standard was extended, and showed data for the spring and summer terms. The data for the spring term shows string fiction reading skills in general and even stronger skills in the pre-reading section. However as you move to the non-fiction area the results are more sporadic. There are however, consistently low results in the post-reading skills. The most devastatingly low areas are the ability to comprehend what is read and the analysis of the information. This is devastating because what good is reading

Before completing this research, I wanted to make sure they knew how to find educational journals and articles, so I modeled how to utilize Galileo which they all have access. Once the team members had time to research, we met again to dive into it all. I led the team in realizing that all of their research from the educational journals and information from the GA Department of Education concerning Lexile levels was tied to best practices in teaching literacy. Many literacy strategies kept appearing throughout their research, like the close reading strategy and reading interventions which are separate from the reading block. With my direction, they could see the impact these strategies can have in the classroom, so they researched those two best practices specifically. Throughout this research process I was able to meet with the team to discuss the research, but I also made sure that I met with each member individually when they were completing the research. By doing so, I was able to make connections with each team member and help them become more assured of the research

Using assessment to intervene in students’ learning in calculated ways boosts learning outcomes (Daly, 2006). Unlike busy work, which sees all students complete the same activity regardless of whether it progresses their knowledge and skills, learning experiences shall cater to the unique needs of each student. Flexible (non-permanent) guided reading and writing groups will allow instruction to target students’ needs, focusing at whole text, sentence or word level to assist struggling students or students ready for new knowledge (Reutzel, 2003). Understanding students’ reading levels will help to select appropriate texts that students can read for sustained periods of time. Levelled texts will be used in flexible guided reading groups, allowing instruction to be targeted to learners’ needs. Allington (2002) contends students consolidate reading skills and strategies via extensive practice reading texts that allow them to achieve high-levels of comprehension, accuracy and

Early research for Read 180 began in 1985 with Dr. Ted Hasselbring of Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, who developed a prototype for software that was capable of using individual student performance data in order to differentiate reading instruction. In 1994 he joined Dr. Janet Allen of the University of Central Florida to create a literacy program for low-performing students. The instructional model from this project became the basis of the READ 180 Instructional Model. In 1997 Scholastic collaborated with Vanderbilt University to create a published program, READ 180. They adopted the Lexile Framework® for Reading development which provided a way to measure reading level and text difficulty. In 1998 the program was piloted in The Council of the