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Independent Study Confirms Causal Link between
Improved Student Reading and Voyager Professional
Development Program in New York
NEW YORK, December 15, 2005 -- Voyager Expanded Learning® today announced that a report from MAGI Educational Services, Inc., an independent educational research and evaluation company retained by The New York State Board of Education, found a direct and causal link between teacher participation in the New York State Reading Academy and improved reading scores in Kindergarten through third grade students. The New York State Reading Academy was developed by Voyager to help the state comply with an $82 million Reading Excellence Act (REA) grant for statewide professional development of reading instruction.
New York contracted with Voyager in 2001 to develop and deliver training for more than 2,500 teachers statewide. The Reading Academy program was designed by Voyager to improve teacher skills in reading instruction using a blended learning model that includes online self-study, group discussion, and classroom application activities completed under the guidance of a reading coach. The course content prepares teachers to implement scientifically based reading research (SBRR) practices that include strategies for motivating young readers and cover the five essential components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
The MAGI report concluded that 71 percent of students whose teachers completed the New York State Reading Academy were on or above grade level by the spring of 2004, an increase of 33 percentage points from the fall 2003. The report confirmed that this across-the-board improvement was due to the teachers’ increased experience with SBRR practices taught in the Voyager-designed training program. Teachers reported the Reading Academy increased their confidence using SBRR strategies. Teachers also gave high ratings to the Reading Academy’s curricular content, classroom applications and group discussion.
The MAGI report studied 35 schools using a stratified random sampling. All K-3 teachers who participated in the New York State Reading Academy in each school were surveyed. MAGI then collected and analyzed DIBELS ™ (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills ™) student assessment data from schools that were included in the random sample, in addition to any schools that administered the assessments in fall 2003 and spring 2004. The percent of students who met benchmarks on DIBELS for each grade level were compared at the beginning and end of the school year. More importantly, classroom observations documented increased use of SBRR teaching behaviors among Reading Academy participant teachers. The relationship of improved student achievement and increased SBRR behaviors was verified using a regression analyses.
Teacher and administrator surveys were positive. “The content is just what we need,” commented Grace Coddington, principal of Cherry Valley-Springfield Elementary School. “The Reading Academy put everybody on the same page.”
Since partnering with Voyager in 2001, more than 11,000 New York state teachers have participated in the Reading Academy. The New York State Reading Academy continues in 2005-2006 through the Reading First grant and will be independently evaluated year to year.
The professional development model created for New York, has since been adapted by Voyager and implemented in North Carolina, Indiana, Arizona and additional states.
View the full report at: http://www.voyageru.com/programs/reading_academy/academy_results.jsp
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. The Voyager Universal Literacy System® is the only reading program patented for its “method and system for preventing illiteracy.” Founded in 1994, Voyager has delivered extended-time reading and basic skills intervention programs as well as large-scale reading programs to more than 1,000 school districts in cities such as Dallas, Phoenix, New York, Philadelphia and the District of Columbia, resulting in dramatically improved student performance. Partnership and 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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