Phoenix Inner-City Students Strive Toward National Reading Average

This case study describes the implementation of McGraw Hill's Reading Mastery and Language for Learning at Wilson Primary School in Phoenix, Arizona. The PreK-3 school serves 813 students, 95% of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and 52% are English Language Learners (ELL). Starting in the 1998-1999 school year, the school implemented Reading Mastery in Grades 1-3 and Language for Learning for Kindergarteners and ELLs in grades 1-3. The study examined student reading scores on the Stanford 9 (SAT/9) and later the Terra Nova assessment. After implementation, student reading scores began rising steadily toward the national average. For example, Grade 3 reading scores, which were at the 32nd percentile in 1998, rose to the 49th percentile by 2001. In 2005, the state ranked the school as "Performing Plus," an improvement from its "Underperforming" rank in 2003, and the school achieved Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in 2004 and 2005.