Locally-Chosen versus State-Mandated Success Criteria: A Retrospective Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Success-For-All Program with Fourth and Seventh Grade Hispanic Students

Carifio Carifio

doi:10.3844/crpsp.2010.82.101

Abstract

Problem statement: This study compared the growth in reading competencies of Hispanic female and male students in the SFA program as measured by the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI). Approach: The study was a retrospective study with several a priori hypotheses and examined logical comparison groups of 4th and 7th graders, who received 1 and 3 years of SFA reading instruction respectively. Results: This study found that the SFA recommended SRI test presented an over-rosy picture of students reading achievement levels and gains (as compared to the MCAS test) and masked important differential effects of the program. ANOVA results showed that female Hispanic students obtained significantly higher average scores on the MCAS than did male Hispanic students and that these differences between Hispanic female and male students were significantly larger in the seventh grade than in the fourth grade. These findings showed that the SFA program was, most probably, not very successful in developing the reading competencies of Hispanic male students beyond grade 4. Conclusion: The critical and unexamined issue of locally-selected versus state-mandated success criteria for evaluating high stakes programs is also discussed in this article.

Highlights

The Success for All (SFA) program is one of the most widely used whole-school reading programs that have been developed in the past decade and it is currently being used in over 1500 school districts nationally according to the Success-for-All Foundation
Success for All (SFA) is a school-wide research-based reform model program developed by Robert Slavin and his associates at Johns Hopkins University and the program is based on the assertion that all students can and must succeed in the early grades and succeed in reading in particular (Slavin, 1996)
Over eighty percent (80%) of of the SFA program, needed to be assessed River City students identify Spanish as the primary, as well as the language spoken in the homes

Summary

Introduction

The Success for All (SFA) program is one of the most widely used whole-school reading programs that have been developed in the past decade and it is currently being used in over 1500 school districts nationally according to the Success-for-All Foundation. This study addressed a major issue in educational research, program evaluation and the evidence-based practice movement since the implementation of legislated educational reforms in the late 1990’s This core and critical issue is, “Which criteria should be used in designing and assessing the effectiveness of educational programs: Locally-orresearch chosen criteria or state-mandated standards?” This thorny but quite important issue has been more or less avoided, if not ignored, by the educational and research communities, but it is a core and critical issue that needs to be addressed by all educational research and policy setting and evaluation efforts today in the current context of educational reform. This study addresses this latter issue in a formative manner that should help initiate further needed discussions and studies of this important issue as well

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