Implementing Diagnostic/Prescriptive Reading Innovations.

The results of fieldwork in six diagnostic/prescriptive reading projects in school districts within and around Santa Monica, California, are summarized in this paper. The fieldwork was designed to examine the process of implementing diagnostic/prescriptive approach reading projects and was done as part of a large Rand study of innovative projects in four federal programs: Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; Title VII (the Bilingual Program) of the same Act; the Vocational Education Act, Part D; and the Right to Read Program. Fieldwork data were collected through semistructured interviews with superintendents, project directors, principals, teachers, and others with a knowledge of the project, such as district office personnel or parents. The adaptation and implementation problems observed in the six reading projects strongly suggest that the diagnostic/prescriptive approach to organizing reading instruction imposes behavioral change demands on teachers that require substantial extra resources to implement and, even more important, to continue. (LL)