A Description of Foundation Skills Interventions for Struggling Middle-Grade Readers in Four Urban Northeast and Islands Region School Districts

This study, conducted during the 2006-07 academic year, describes how four mid-size urban school districts in the Northeast and Islands Region—Worcester, Massachusetts; Nashua, New Hampshire; Yonkers, New York; and Providence, Rhode Island, conducted foundation skills assessments and provided foundation skills programs to struggling middle-grade readers.

The study identifies six factors that, according to the district representatives interviewed, can promote or hinder program implementation:

1. Building on the federal Reading First initiative by expanding selected aspects of the program to upper elementary and middle grades,
2. Using Response-to-Intervention and three-tier reading models,
3. Fostering collaboration among relevant departments and programs,
4. Recruiting highly qualified teachers in relevant areas,
5. Solving problems of time and scheduling, and
6. Ensuring that programs are carried out as designed.