McGraw Hill's Reading Programs Bring Increases in Baltimore Scores

This case study examines the implementation of Open Court Reading curricula within the Baltimore City Public Schools, an urban public school district. The district serves approximately 90,000 students, of whom 81% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The implementation involved two main curricula: Open Court Reading, introduced district-wide in 1998 for grades K–2 and utilized in 102 of the district’s 120 elementary schools, and Direct Instruction programs (including Reading Mastery, Language for Learning, Language for Thinking, Reasoning and Writing, Corrective Reading, and Expressive Writing) utilized across 18 elementary schools for grades PreK–8. The study used descriptive statistics to identify longitudinal trends in student achievement. Outcomes examined include reading scores on the Terra Nova Reading Test (administered from the 1998–1999 school year through the 2002–2003 school year) and the Maryland State Assessment (MSA) in reading (administered from 2003 through 2007). Descriptive results show that median national percentile ranks on the Terra Nova Reading Test increased for grades 1 through 6 during the years of administration. Additionally, the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on the MSA Reading increased between 2003 and 2007: from 39% to 69% in grade 3, from 61% to 73% in grade 4, and from 44% to 60% in grade 5.