Year One Evaluation Report/Impact Study: Illinois Striving Readers

The Illinois Striving Readers (ISR) Project had two purposes: (1) implement a supplemental reading intervention for students in ninth grade who were reading below grade level; and (2) study the impact of the intervention on students' performance on standardized assessments using a randomized control trial design. The Illinois Striving Readers (ISR) project focused on ninth grade students who scored at the bottom two quartiles on the state assessment (grade 8 EXPLORE®). A total of 855 students participated in the project. Of these, 427 students were randomly assigned to the treatment group, with 428 students going to the control group. This report presents findings from the first year of implementation of the Illinois Striving Readers. The report is divided into three parts: (1) describes the intervention as proposed by the developers and the project's logic model; (2) discusses findings from the first implementation year; and (3) presents the analysis of the intervention's impact on student academic performance, as measured by standardized assessments.