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For Immediate Release
Virginia Department of Education Approves Passport
Reading Journeys Intervention for Grades 7-8
Richmond, VA, May 31, 2006 – Voyager Expanded Learning® announced today that Passport Reading Journeys™ for grades seven and eight has been approved and added to the Virginia Instruction Model/Program List by the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Education, allowing school districts to choose Passport Reading Journeys as their intervention program for middle school students.
Passport Reading Journeys is a daily, 50-minute reading intervention system for middle and high school students reading two or more years below grade level. The program uses engaging video DVDs with teen hosts, online comprehension and vocabulary activities and high-interest topics, such as forensics, that keep students interested and motivated to improve their reading skills.
The design of Passport Reading Journeys meets the nine instructional components outlined in the Carnegie Corporation report, Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy, by Gina Biancarosa and Dr. Catherine Snow and published by the Alliance for Excellent Education.
According to the Virginia Department of Education, "The Regulations Establishing Standards for Accrediting Public Schools in Virginia requires schools accredited with warning in English or mathematics to adopt and implement instructional methods that have a proven track record of success at raising student achievement."
Criteria for the approved programs include:
1. Scientifically based evidence of effectiveness: The effectiveness of models/programs are justified, based on scientific research that involves the application of rigorous, systematic and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge of the models/programs. The major components of the models’/programs’ include instructional methods and practices that have been verified through scientifically based research.
The research documenting improvement in student achievement has presented convincing evidence that the observed results were based on the models/programs intervention. The models/programs effectiveness in improving student achievement has been demonstrated in Virginia and is based upon effective research-based strategies. Gains in student achievement on Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests have been sustained over time.
2. Implementation and capacity for technical assistance: The models/programs have explained the essential ingredients necessary to make the program fully operational, including estimates of the costs, with respect to time and money, and the requirements for implementation. The program managers have described in detail their capacity, in terms of technical assistance, to provide the staff development, consultation and support necessary for successful implementation in a number of Virginia schools.
3. Replicability: The models’/programs’ effectiveness has been demonstrated through multiple investigations in numerous locations with low-achieving students.
4. Correlation with, or adaptability, to the Virginia Standards of Learning in English or mathematics: The content of the models/programs correlates with the Virginia Standards of Learning in English or mathematics. Or, the models/programs can be adapted to the Virginia Standards of Learning.
According to the VDOE brief, "Several evaluation studies, including results from Virginia, indicate strong evidence of the efficacy of the program." Results are available at www.voyagerlearning.com.
Updated documents containing the board-approved recommended list and background information can be found at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Instruction/title1/Models-Programs.pdf.
About Voyager Expanded Learning
Voyager Expanded Learning provides core, intervention and supplemental reading programs, as well as math intervention and ongoing professional development programs for school districts throughout the United States. Founded in 1994, Voyager has delivered extended-time reading and basic skills intervention programs as well as large-scale reading programs to more than 900 school districts in cities such as Dallas, Phoenix, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and the District of Columbia, resulting in dramatically improved student performance. Collaborations with the Discovery Channel enable Voyager to provide timely and powerful curricula for the American classroom. Voyager Expanded Learning, Inc. is a business unit of ProQuest Company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.voyagerlearning.com or call 1-888-399-1995.
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