Challenges to Implementing Effective Reading Intervention in Schools: New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, Number 154

This special issue is a "how to" on overcoming the many systems-level challenges in K 12 public education to implement effective reading interventions for the vast numbers of students reading below grade level. It emphasizes building researcher practitioner partnerships, providing ongoing professional development for teachers, and removing institutional barriers to change as the keys to effective reading intervention. Interventions for the upper grades focus on the challenges of coaxing content-area teachers to learn new routines for building background knowledge, teaching academic vocabulary, and conducting discussions to foster critical reading and knowledge application. In the primary grades, interventions follow a multi-tiered system of support where enhanced classroom instruction is supported by small-group intervention for struggling readers. The volume also discusses the importance of training special educators to implement data-based individuation. This is the 154th volume in this Jossey-Bass series New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in this subject area. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts from that field.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction to the Special Issue: Challenges and Solutions to Implementing Effective Reading Intervention in Schools 7 Barbara Foorman This introduction presents the challenges and solutions to implementing effective reading intervention in schools in the United States. 2. Implementation Challenges for Tier One and Tier Two School-Based Programs for Early Adolescents 11 Maria D. LaRusso, Suzanne Donovan, Catherine Snow This article describes the implementation of a classroom-based program called Word Generation (WG) and an intervention program called Strategic Adolescent Research Initiative (STARI) in grades 4 8. Common explanations for low levels of implementation (ranging from 31% to 48%, on average) were lack of time, multiple new initiatives, and time lost to testing and test prep. 3. Implementation of a Text-Based Content Intervention in Secondary Social Studies Classrooms 31 Jeanne Wanzek, Sharon Vaughn This article describes teacher fidelity in a series of studies of a multicomponent intervention with middle and high school social students and students called Promoting Acceleration of Comprehension and Content Through Text (PACT). Fidelity was high for building background knowledge and key vocabulary and low for critical reading and knowledge application. 4. Seven Elements Important to Successful Implementation of Early Literacy Intervention 49 Barbara Foorman, Jennifer Dombek, Kevin Smith The objective of this article is to describe seven elements important to successful implementation of early literacy intervention: (a) the importance of research-practitioner partnerships, (b) determining the need for early intervention, (c) assessment selection and data use, (d) evaluating curriculum and instructional materials for use in early intervention, (e) scheduling time for intervention, (f) selecting, training, and supporting interventionists, and (g) locating space and maintaining open communications among interventionists, teachers, and parents. 5. Delving Into the Details: Implementing Multitiered K 3 Reading Supports in High-Priority Schools 67 Michael D. Coyne, Ashley Oldham, Kaitlin Leonard, Darci Burns, Nicholas Gage The purpose of this article is to describe a K 3 reading initiative where school teams serving high percentages of students at risk for reading difficulties delved into the details to work to overcome the complexities inherent in implementingmultitiered reading supports in high priority schools. 6. Improving Professional Development to Enhance Reading Outcomes for Students in Special Education 87 Christopher J. Lemons, Stephanie Al Otaiba, Sheila J. Conway, Veronica Mellado De La Cruz This article focuses on the professional development needed to ensure that pre-service and in-service teachers are prepared to deliver intensive intervention to enhance reading outcomes of students in special education. A key recommendation is that special educators be prepared to design and implement data-based individualization in the area of reading. 7. Commentary: Learning from Variations in Fidelity of Implementation 105 Rekha Balu, Fred Doolittle This commentary encourages researchers to (a) learn from variation in fidelity to think about points of entry and levers for improvement in implementation and (b) broaden the evaluation focus to include service contrast as a factor driving impacts on student outcomes. 8. Commentary: Implementing Interventions: Building a Shared Understanding of Why 109 Vibeke Grover This commentary discusses how the articles that comprise this special issue conceptualizewhat is required for reading interventions to change instruction. 9. Commentary: The Tyranny of Time and the Reality Principle 113 Russell Gersten This commentary discusses how each of the articles in this special issue gets into the weeds in terms of studying actual classroom or school implementation of evidence-based promising practices. INDEX 117