Schools engaged in school-wide reading reform: an examination of the school and individual student predictors of kindergarten early reading outcomes

Abstract

This study examined the school and student predictors of early reading outcomes for kindergarten students enrolled in schools that participated in a beginning reading reform program. The study employed a nested design with students nested within schools and applied hierarchical linear modeling analyses to account for the organizational structure of the dataset. Fifty-seven schools were selected from all of the Hawaiian Islands to participate in the Institute on Beginning Reading (IBR), a research-based model of school-wide reading improvement. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the existence and magnitude of school effects on student early reading outcomes for schools engaged in a beginning reading reform model. Subjects were 3,652 Kindergarteners nested within 57 schools across the Hawaiian Islands. Results indicate that there were both significant and meaningful differences between schools on kindergarten early reading outcomes.