California Reading Program Shows Positive Results, Study Finds

The $1,000 per student program, emphasizing the science of reading, yielded test-score gains equivalent to an additional quarter of a year in English and 12 percent of a year in math.

• A new study reports positive results from a reading program in California that emphasized training teachers in the principles of the science of reading.
• The program, which cost about $1,000 per student annually, retrained teachers and administrators and paid for new classroom materials, better aligned to cognitive research.
• The program was significantly less expensive than lowering class sizes to the point where similar learning gains would be likely, and the cost was on par with or less than many high-quality tutoring programs.
• The program did not prescribe curriculums. Rather, after training school staff on reading research and how to use data to drive improvement, principals and their teams were able to chart their own path forward.
• The program stems from a 2020 legal settlement between the state and a group of students and parents who had sued years earlier, arguing that California was defying its own State Constitution by failing to provide 'adequate access to literacy' in its schools.

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