THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITYOFFICE OF NEWS AND INFORMATION3003 N. Charles Street, Suite 100Baltimore, Maryland 21218-3843Phone: (410) 516-7160 / Fax (410) 516-5251
February 5, 2001CONTACT: Leslie Rice Masterman410-516-7160or Marc Cutright410-516-8810
MEDIA ADVISORY:TEXAS AFRICAN AMERICAN AND HISPANIC STUDENTS IN "SUCCESS FOR ALL" SCHOOLS CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
A recent study of data from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), shows that "Success For All" schools are substantially closing the gap in reading performance between themselves and the far less impoverished schools in the rest of the state. Gains were even more pronounced for African-American and Hispanic students at "Success For All" schools. The gap between these students and white students closed significantly more than did the gap for African-American and Hispanic students in other Texas schools.
"Success For All" is a comprehensive reform model for elementary schools, designed especially for schools with a high population of low-income students. Begun by Johns Hopkins University researchers Robert Slavin and Nancy Madden in 1987 in one inner-city Baltimore school, "Success For All" is now in more than 1,800 schools in 49 states and five other countries. As of Fall 2000, about 1 million children are in schools that have implemented "Success For All," now operated by a non-profit foundation.
Using the Texas data, which is available on the Internet, researchers for "Success For All" compared state-wide reading performance improvement and improvement at "Success For All" schools. They found that gains were greatest in schools that had implemented the SFA program for four or more years. Scores in those schools were up 18.8 percent compared with gains of 11.1 percent throughout the rest of the state.
The report, "Effects of Success for All on TAAS Reading: A Texas Statewide Evaluation," was authored by Eric A Hurley, Anne Chamberlain, Robert E. Slavin, and Nancy A. Madden. The report was published by the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) at Johns Hopkins University.
To view the entire report, visit http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/Reports/report51.pdf Note: you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0. To downlink a free upgrade, visit http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
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