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A comprehensive, sustainable standards-based system of school improvement services focused on developing college and career ready students

Flexible support services ranging from professional development to schoolwide solutions for Common Core State Standards implementation

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Targeted, accelerated support for students 2+ years behind

Research-based professional development and materials for teachers of English language learners

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America's Choice Ramp-Up to Literacy was Featured in the Fall 2009 Issue of the Journal of Staff Development (JSD)

September 1, 2009

America’s Choice Ramp-Up to Literacy was featured in the Fall 2009 issue of the Journal of Staff Development (JSD), a publication of the National Staff Development Council. The article, Fast Track to Literacy by Thomas Guskey, Marco Muñoz, and Jennifer Aberli, examines the effectiveness of Ramp-Up in accelerating the literacy skills of struggling high school students. The authors studied the implementation of Ramp-Up in Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, and documented the positive results for involved teachers and students.

School and district leaders identified student learning outcomes they wanted to improve, the evidence believed to accurately reflect those outcomes, and the instructional practices that would result in the desired improvements. These criteria led the district to implementation of Ramp-Up to Literacy. As Muñoz wrote in his 2007 article, Improving reading in high schools: Outcomes of Ramp-Up to Advanced Literacy in a large urban district, “Pilot testing of the program showed it to have a significant positive effect on students’ scores on norm-referenced reading and language arts assessments.”

In the Jefferson County Public Schools there were strikingly positive results for teachers and their students. The quantitative and qualitative data showed that participating teachers were highly satisfied with their professional learning experiences during the institutes and follow-up sessions. The positive impact on student learning was documented by several measures, including a dramatic reduction in the percentage of high school students scoring at the lowest novice level in reading on the state assessment, lowering from 20.3% in 2000 to only 5.6% in 2007. Implementation of Ramp-Up led to a rapid rise of students’ scores on the high school Reading Academic Index, increasing from 66.7% in 2000 to 91.1% in 2007. The successes documented in this article highlight the ability of Ramp-Up to increase the instructional practices of teachers and the success of students.

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