Academic Competence Evaluation Scales (ACES)
Category: Student Learning
While legislators have implemented many “science of reading” initiatives in the last two decades, the evidence on the impact of these reforms at scale is limited. In this pre-registered, quasi-experimental study, we examine California’s recent initiative to improve early literacy across the state’s lowest-performing schools. The Early Literacy Support Block Grant (ELSBG) provided teacher professional development grounded in the science of reading as well as aligned supports (e.g., assessments and interventions), new funding (about $1000 per student), spending flexibility within specified guidelines, and expert facilitation and oversight of school-based planning. Our preferred specification finds that ELSBG generated significant (and cost-effective) improvements in ELA achievement in its first two years of implementation (0.14 SD) as well as smaller improvements in math.
Keywords
Achievement, early literacy, targeting, support, implementation, oversight, flexibility, funding, science of reading, curriculum, pedagogy
Education level
Topics
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/jnmt-2093
