2015 National and Community Service Outcome Evaluation and 2013 Progress Report
SEEDS is a Response to Intervention (RTI) model that has been an integral part of the Minnesota Reading Corps since 2012 with the overarching goal of promoting reading proficiency so that children are successful readers by third grade. Our SEEDS of Emergent Literacy approach serves as the pedagogical framework within which members and teachers create a literacy-rich classroom environment in the program.
The Minnesota Reading Corps PreK Program is AmeriCorps’ largest state program in the nation serving preschool (PreK) students and at-risk Kindergarten through third grade (K-3) elementary school students.
Each summer, the Minnesota Reading Corps hosts a multi-day Summer Institute for training new and returning Master Coaches, Internal Coaches and AmeriCorps members in our literacy interventions and teaching techniques for PreK students.
Participants’ perception of program impact:
At all schools, principals reported positive reactions to the program. Teachers at six schools reported positive feedback about the program. They observed that their students made significant gains in ability, literacy skills, reading fluency, and comprehension. They noted also that students had grown or exhibited greater confidence, including a “love of reading” that was not there before. At one school, the teachers were initially hesitant about the tutoring intervention but began “asking to get their students into the program” as they saw its benefits.
Receiving concrete scores and feedback on student proficiency through regular progress monitoring and benchmarking was noted as factors in teachers’ positive response to the program, along with the daily intervention.
One Internal Coach noted, “The members reinforce what the teachers try and do with the students, but the sessions are one-on-one so the time with the members is even better.”
One Principal said, “The interventions are scientifically based and progress monitored. Everything is data-based and scripted, so the interventions are delivered the same regardless of the personnel.”
An AmeriCorps member shared, “seeing student success leads to it” – seeing students’ progress through data motivates teachers to continue diligently adhering to the literacy rich schedule and interventions.
SEEDS tutors indicated that “children think they are playing games” when they are being pulled out of the classroom for Tier 2 and 3 level interventions and are excited and eager for their time with the AmeriCorps member while staff at two other sites stated that students are generally unaware that they are receiving interventions/specialized literacy services.
PreK students in the Minnesota Reading Corps program achieved significantly higher emergent literacy assessment scores by the end of the school year
To evaluate the program, researchers from NORC at the University of Chicago and TIES in Minnesota conducted a randomized controlled trial of more than 1,500 students in 23 urban, suburban and rural Minnesota schools during the 2012-2013 school year. The study validated our model’s positive effect on young readers, showing that 3-year old students enrolled in Minnesota Reading Corps PreK classrooms make meaningful growth in key emergent literacy outcomes associated with later reading comprehension.
Findings from the analysis of IGDI assessment data collected in Fall, Winter and Spring from PreK students, include:
- PreK students in the program achieved significantly higher emergent literacy assessment scores by the end of the school year than did students enrolled in matched-comparison sites.
- After just one semester of tutoring, kindergarten students performed twice as well as students without a tutor.
- The program was equally effective for PreK students regardless of gender, race/ethnicity or Dual Language Learner (DLL) status.
- Neither the school itself nor the educational background of the tutor had a significant effect on the results, meaning our model could be successfully replicated in multiple settings using tutors with little or no experience in education.
See the Data