At a glance
- Programs: System 44®, Read 180®
- Subjects: Literacy Curriculum, Intervention Curriculum
- Report Type: Efficacy Study
- Grade Level: Elementary, Middle, High
- Region: Southwest
- Population: Students with Disabilities
- District Urbanicity: Urban, Suburban
- Implementation Model: 40-59 Minutes
Read 180 now incorporates the comprehensive foundational literacy skills scope and sequence from System 44.
Greater numbers of students with disabilities meet or exceed the standard on the TAKS.
Midland Independent School District (MISD) is located between El Paso and Dallas/Ft. Worth, with an economic base in oil and ranching. Its 38 schools enroll approximately 21,000 students in Grades PreK–12. The district’s population is predominantly Hispanic (66%), while most of the remaining students are White (37%) and African American (10%). Forty-eight percent are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and 34% are students with disabilities. Approximately 19% are limited-English proficient (LEP), and 92% of these students speak Spanish as their first language.
Following two years of a successful READ 180® implementation, the district chose to implement System 44 as a district-wide curriculum for students who lacked foundational literacy skills. Priority was given to LEP students and students with disabilities.
During the 2009–2010 school year, MISD implemented a stand-alone model of System 44 in 23 classrooms. Elementary, middle, and high school students were placed into the intervention program if they scored below 400 Lexile® (L) measures on the Reading Inventory® and exhibited difficulty with word-reading skills on the Phonics Inventory®.
A total of 346 students in Grades 4–9 comprise the sample in this report. Approximately half (52%) were male. Approximately 66% of these students were Hispanic, 14% were White, 18% were African American, and 2% were not identified. Twenty-three percent were students with disabilities.
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS™) Reading and Reading Inventory data were collected and analyzed for 346 students in Grades 4–9 who used the program during the 2009–2010 school year. Findings indicated that, on average, the percentage of System 44 students meeting or exceeding the standard on TAKS Reading increased from 2009 to 2010. Overall, the percentage of System 44 students meeting or exceeding the standard on TAKS Reading improved from 42% in 2009 to 44% in 2010. These improvements in performance were magnified when the data was disaggregated by student group. As Graph 1 illustrates, the percentage of students with disabilities who met or exceeded the standard on TAKS Reading improved from 44% in 2009 to 64% in 2010. Reading Inventory results revealed similar trends in reading performance for students in elementary and junior/ freshman high. As Table 1 shows, overall, System 44 students in MISD gained an average of 207L, with elementary students gaining an average of 210L, and junior/freshman high students gaining an average of 197L.
Further, data showed that more time spent on System 44 software was associated with greater improvement on the Reading Inventory. Students were divided into groups depending upon the number of software sessions they completed. A one-way ANOVA test and subsequent post-hoc analyses confirmed that Lexile gains were significantly greater for students who completed 80 or more sessions than for students who completed fewer than 80 sessions.
GRAPH 1. Midland Independent School District System 44 Students, Grades 4–9 (N=346)
Performance on TAKS Reading by Education Classification, 2009–2010
Note. The increase in pass rates was statistically significant for students with disabilities (t=3.36, p=.00).
GRAPH 2. Midland Independent School District System 44 Students, Grades 4–9 (N=346)
Change in Reading Inventory Lexile Score as a Function of Software Usage, 2009–2010
Note. The gain in Lexile was significantly greater for students who completed 80 or more sessions than for students who completed fewer than 80 sessions (t=7.41, p=.00).