Ohio Department of Education
September 2001
The Ohio Department of Education has issued this appraisal of 21 reading programs widely used in the elementary schools of the Buckeye State. It was prepared by David Pearson of Michigan State University and Steven Stahl of the University of Georgia. They looked to see how well each program meets eight criteria that research says are important for effective literacy programs. These include five aspects of early reading (phonemic awareness, word recognition and phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension), two operational concerns (meeting individual needs, professional development for teachers) and "evidence of effectiveness." This last is a bit shaky, as the evaluators relied on program vendors to supply the evidence - and they comment that "few programs...met the 'gold standard' for evaluation," i.e. an experimental study by independent analysts. Most of the 85-page report consists of a few pages per program, summarizing the reviewers' conclusions and ratings. These are done on a scale from - in effect - zero to 3, with 3 representing "strong evidence" of a program's success in addressing the particular criterion. Few programs display lots of 3's - and some with high ratings are new to me. (Among them are also several that I'm acquainted with, including Open Court and Success for All.) I don't believe that any two reading experts would agree on these sorts of ratings, and some of what I see in this evaluation - e.g. high marks for Reading Recovery - gives me pause. But have a look. At the very least, it's apt to show you some reading programs that you probably DON'T want to use. You could phone (614) 466-0224 but I think your fastest path is via the web: http://www.ohiorc.org/articles/consumer_guide.pdf
