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 * __SUCCESS FOR ALL__ **

Success for All (“SFA”) is a comprehensive whole-school reform program that grew out of research into cooperative learning strategies and effective math and literacy curricula conducted by Robert Slavin, Nancy Madden, and others at Johns Hopkins University during the 1980's. SFA started its first school "integrating process and curriculum" in Baltimore in 1987. The SFA program includes a reading, writing, and oral language development program for Pre-K through eighth graders, but the majority of SFA students are at the elementary school level. SFA's literacy program can be used as a stand-alone curriculum since it has developed its own reading materials or in conjunction with other traditional basal reading curricula. Its underlying premise is that all children can and should be reading at grade level by the end of third grade. It achieves this through "prevention, early intervention, and relentlessness."
 * Model Background and Overview **

While SFA is best known for its literacy curriculum, it has also developed its own Writing Wings, Power Teaching Mathematics, and social studies curricula.  Teaching & Learning Philosophy **
 * 

Success for All focuses on early literacy intervention for low income, educationally at-risk, elementary school students. Its philosophy combines elements of both traditional and progressive approaches to teaching and learning.

Elements of SFA's program that accord with the //__traditional approach__// include:

· Students are regarded as empty vessels to be filled with well-established content, especially phonics-rich literacy skills

· Learning is largely a passive rote and drill, practice and memorization process without strong emphasis on critical thinking, problem solving, or creativity.  · Reliance is placed on extrinsic motivation, such as daily points and formal recognition

· <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Assessments tend to take the form of standardized tests <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Teachers present the prescribed curriculum in an essentialist manner, moving rigidly from simple to more complex skills and knowledge.

Elements of SFA's program that accord with the //__progressive approach__// include:

<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Belief that all students, "whatever their challenges and abilities," will succeed in general, and in particular acquire reading skills by the 3rd grade

<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Use of cooperative learning instruction that values peer interaction and rewards cooperation <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Instruction that is carefully tailored to the student's ability.

SFA schools focus on literacy skills. SFA's underlying premise is that all children, including those with limited English proficiency, can and should be reading in English at grade level by the end of third grade.

Learning is described as a "social activity" that should take place in "communities" so that students can "accomplish more as individuals" and "have more fun in the process." Lessons begin with the teacher "prepar[ing] [his/her] students for learning" by presenting new content through a process of questioning and modeling. Students then “take control of their learning" by working in small cooperative groups to accomplish specific tasks, while the teacher circulates to informally assess comprehension and provide "one-on-one. . . targeted instruction." Cooperative learning "teams" receive rewards for meeting "behavioral objectives" in the form of "daily points" and "formal recognition and rewards at the end of the cycle.”

The SFA website rarely uses the word "teach" when it describes the role of teachers. Under the SFA program, teachers are called upon to "manage" or "implement" the program properly, "coach" the students, "present" and "model" material, and "guide" students in their learning. While teachers are expected to "monitor" student comprehension, tasks requiring a more sophisticated exercise of judgment, such as setting academic goals, are performed by school administrators and SFA facilitators and coaches. SFA supplies the teachers' curricular materials, as well as their daily lesson plans. Extensive SFA training and guidance is provided to teachers throughout the year via SFA trainer-led on-site meetings and telephone conferences. Videos and audio CDs are also used to teach content to students, completing bypassing the need for teacher-supplied instruction.

SFA's teaching and learning philosophy elicits strong reactions from industry experts. In preparation for a 1998 article in //The Atlantic Monthly//, Lemann observed the SFA program in action at P.S. 114 elementary school in the South Bronx. According to Lemann, in practice, SFA's "theoretical foundation" of "cooperative learning" isn't as progressive as it sounds on paper. Cooperative learning sessions are "strictly time-limited and task-defined." The classroom atmosphere resembles a "cheerful and purposeful" "Parris Island" with constant drilling, loud unison reading, and an emphasis on "working right" so that you "earn work points for your team work." Its whole-school reform approach "takes over a school and substantially limits teachers' freedom" and autonomy. Teachers are turned "into drill instructors" in an "atmosphere" that "is palpably one of preparing children to become workers." SFA's approach is described as "'Taylorism in the classroom,' after Frederick Taylor, the early-twentieth-century efficiency expert who routinized every detail of factory work." In Lemann's view, SFA regards the "first task" of the school as "impart[ing] a body of skills and knowledge" through this highly scripted curriculum. Lemann regards SFA's teaching and learning philosophy as inappropriate for "the great bulk of American public schools" but appropriate for "nonperforming schools" whose teachers have repeatedly failed in their responsibility to educate their students.

Educator, author, and activist Jonathan Kozol employs even harsher criticism of SFA's teaching and learning philosophy. Kozol describes SFA's approach as "bludgeoning," "teacher-proof," "horrific for the teachers and boring for the children . . . an intellectual straitjacket." In Kozol's view, the SFA approach shows a marked preference for "more poorly educated teachers" who are more inclined to welcome this highly structured approach. It disrespects minority students by "indoctrinating" them in a "noncritical and acquiescent mode of intellection" that serves as "training for subordination and not education for democracy." Similarly, education professor and curriculum developer Stanley Pogrow describes the SFA philosophy as "overstructured and regimented to such an extent that it limit[s] the professional discretion of teachers."

In contrast, independent education researcher Park's 2008 study of SFA's use of "collaborative assistance" in its "highly prescribed school reform model" emphasizes the respectful, collaborative aspects of SFA staffs' relationship with the teachers and administrator. Although Park acknowledges that "much of the SFA’s theory, strategy, and tools seem technically oriented and highly prescribed," she stresses that her investigation revealed that the extensive professional development provided to teachers under the SFA program is in fact quite collaborative. Communication between SFA professional development staff and the teachers at SFA schools is a two-way street, with "continuous feedback" about the effectiveness of techniques. A principal that Park interviewed described the relationship between SFA school administrators, teachers and SFA staff as a respectful one, where "we are accepted as peers and colleagues . . . they are interested in what we say."


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Evidence of Research, Experience, and Results for Success for All **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">

<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Research Findings ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> The SFA Foundation states its model "is built on a solid research base, with products and practices that are extensively tested in the field," and each program has "undergone rigorous study by outside reviewers."

From its early stages, the SFA Foundation has been keenly interested in monitoring its effectiveness through research. As a result there are many years’ worth of studies that have been conducted with SFA schools and matched control schools. Although many of the studies have been conducted by the authors or others affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, where the program was developed, many others were conducted by third party investigators.

An early study examined the outcomes of a first-year implementation of SFA in a Baltimore area school in which SFA was anticipated to be a five-year project. The study encompassed preschool through grade 3. After one year of implementation, at the kindergarten level, SFA students scored significantly higher than control students on several language and reading measures, including subtests of the Test of Oral Language Development (TOLD) and Merrill Language Screening Test. The strongest effects were seen at the third grade level. Additionally, in this pilot school, both the number of referrals for special education and the number of special education placements decreased compared to previous years.

In another study, students across 111 Texas SFA schools scored higher on Tennessee Value-Added Assessment Scale (TAAS) than those in non-SFA schools. An independent evaluation of Memphis schools using the TAAS found SFA to produce the highest scores among eight reform models. In turn, four different indpendant studies of the special education-related outcomes of SFA have found "reductions in special education placements from one-half to three-quarters, as well as increased achievement among children who already have IEP's for learning disabilities."

SFA's website's claims of research-based effectiveness have not gone without dispute. For instance, studies of the effects of a three-year implementation of SFA in Miami–Dade County, Florida, showed that for the lowest-performing schools, achievement was not improved, and English-language learners in SFA schools made smaller gains in English proficiency than students in comparison schools.

In his 2000 article in //Forbes//, Lubove also indicates that Stanley Pogrow and other critics have questioned the validity of the research. Pogrow, the developer of the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) program for Title I and learning-disabled students and a pre-algebra curriculum called Supermath, has been an especially vocal critic of the research that supposedly supports the success of SFA's program. Pogrow questioned whether the research cited by SFA in support of its model constituted "advocacy, not science," the work of "marketers with a lot at stake." Pogrow criticized the data and methodology of the studies supporting SFA's success. Pogrow alleged that the founders of SFA, Robert Slavin and Nancy Madden, are direct participants in most of the studies supporting SFA's success and independent third-party researchers performed their studies while engaged in business relationships or otherwise affiliated with Slavin, his research center, or the SFA Foundation. Pogrow asserts that SFA's studies have inflated effect sizes (the difference between the SFA schools and their comparison schools) by finding ways to avoid counting SFA students in higher grades whose scores are typically lower than those in K and 1st and failing to account for variables such as differences in reading instruction classes, longer time spent on reading, and teaching to the assessment test.

Recent Intervention Reports published by the U.S. Department of Education's What Work's Clearinghouse (WWC) in 2008 and 2009 support some of Pogrow's criticisms. These reports discount many of the studies cited in support of SFA's programs as failing to meet WWC evidence standards or eligibility screens. For instance, its August 2009 Report analyzing the success of SFA's grade K - 3 Beginning Reading interventions of alphabetics, comprehension, and general reading comprehension, discounts 103 of the 110 submitted studies, finding only one 2006 study capable of meeting WWC evidence standards and six other studies as meeting its evidence standards with reservations.

However, although they discount many SFA studies on evidentiary grounds, two of the three most recent WWC Intervention Reports from 2008 and 2009 do give SFA WWC's highest effectiveness rating of "positive" to SFA's alphabetics (i.e., phonics) program for K-3 and its second highest effectiveness rating of "potentially positive" to SFA's general reading achievement for K-3 and for ESL students. Even SFA's critics would agree that research demonstrates that SFA's program, with its strong stress on phonics instruction, has a positive impact on literacy in the early elementary grades.

<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Funding Issues ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> According to Park's 2008 study, "[f]ederal policies such as the Comprehensive School Reform program and the changes in Title I laws" gave SFA an advantage over other curricular programs during the 1990s despite the relatively high cost of implementing its program compared to other programs. (At present, the cost of implementing its whole school reform program is $80,000 in the first year, approximately $50,000 in the second year, and $35,000 in the third.) During the '90's, SFA scaled up from adoption by a single school in 1987 to adoption by approximately 1,500 by the end of the decade, thanks to easy access to Title I funding. However, SFA's access to that funding has been shrinking over the past decade following the passage of the No Child Left Behind act (NCLB) in 2000 and especially the Reading First Initiative (RF), a federal policy regarding reading instruction established under NCLB. Park's 2008 study reveals that "local education agencies applying for RF grants have typically been unsuccessful when including SFA as part of their proposals" because local education agencies believe that RF's "policy favors traditional basal readers." Another recent problem for SFA is that the state of California, a state with many past SFA subscribers, now "allows for the adoption of only one or two reading series (Houghton Miflin & Open Court), which educators have interpreted as excluding SFA as an option," even though "SFA can be adapted for use with both of these reading series." SFA's popularity has also plummeted as a result of school districts' movement "toward curricular uniformity and coherence," since most districts aren't using SFA as their curricular model. Lastly, with NCLB came a greater focus on test prep, which limits the time and resources available to spend on initiatives such as SFA designed to prevent reading difficulties and implement whole school change.

The SFA Foundation has responded to these new challenges by adjusting its marketing to (1) focus on both school district and individual school adopters, (2) stress that its comprehensive reform model should qualify for RF since it's "based on scientifically-based research" and can be used with other company's materials, and (3) demonstrate how SFA programs can help schools make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under NCLB.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> SFA's approach to increasing student achievement is based on: <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">__Cooperative learning instructional methods__ **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> that permit children to "work in pairs or very small groups to insure participation in learning by all students." These small learning groups help students, especially ESL students, receive coaching, encouragement, and feedback from their peers. SFA regards social learning as an important aspect of its program, leading to "high grades, better relationships with peers, increased retention of information and a better attitude towards school and learning."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Key components of Success for All **

<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">__A "cycle of effective instruction”__ **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> where lessons are structured with a consistent pattern and guided by SFA's Teach – Team – Test – Team Recognition practice. Group teaching is followed by breakouts into cooperative learning teams that receive continual assessment and recognition for improvement. Instruction is fast-paced and takes place in small groups, enabling individual attention. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">__Data and ongoing informal & formal assessments__ **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> identifies the student’s knowledge from the beginning and tracks growth throughout each quarter. SFA uses the data to motivate staff and students, monitor student’s progress and help guide teachers as they make instructional decisions.

The SFA curriculum emphasizes team goals that can only be achieved when all members of the team are learning and improving. The task is not only to do something as a team, but also to learn something as a team. Since individual students compare their scores only with their own past performance, every team member is able to contribute equally to the success of the team.

SFA's program includes a "Solutions Network" that "coordinates community, family, and school resources to ensure motivated, healthy, well-cared for students who enthusiastically focus all of their energy on learning." Solutions "school-based members" establish plans for increasing student attendance to 95% or more and develop prevention and intervention plans for "special populations" of students who aren't succeeding academically.

SFA's main focus regarding special needs' children is prevention, especially for children with learning disabilities or at risk for learning disabilities. This concept, called "neverstreaming", offers children effective preschool and kindergarten beginning reading, family support programs, one-to-one tutoring and other special adaptations. For children who have more serious learning disabilities or other academic limitations, SFA advocates a policy of full inclusion. These children are typically assessed, placed in appropriate reading groups, tutored if necessary, and otherwise treated the same as other children, with appropriate adaptations to their unique needs.

SFA's school-wide classroom management approach is instilled through its K-8 "social problem-solving curriculum" called "Getting Along Together." This curriculum "teaches children to think critically, solve problems non-violently, and work in teams effectively and cooperatively." Teachers instruct students in "key problem-solving skills through detailed lessons," "coach" students to use metacognition to "self-talk their way through interpersonal problems," and employ "an interactive problem-solving model" called Peace Path and class councils to give students practice in talking through conflicts.

One integral and oft debated component of SFA is that students are grouped by reading level/ability, not by grade level. Therefore, a single reading class might consist of children of a variety of ages. Students are assessed every eight weeks, so that groups remain fluid and children are monitored and moved appropriately on a frequent basis. Instead of being placed in special reading classes or retained in grade, students who need additional reading help receive one-on-one tutoring to get them back on track.



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">(From the Success For All website) <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;">Reading sessions are delivered in 90-minute daily blocks early in the day with no outside interruptions allowed. As a result, in Lemann's words, "most of the school's daily energy supply" is devoted to reading. SFA's reading curriculum includes a special Early Learning program for Pre-K and K called KinderRoots, Reading Roots for beginning readers, Reading Wings for more fluent readers in grades 2-3, and Adventure Island reading intervention which <span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">provides intensive support for at-risk readers in grades 1 to 5. In KinderRoots and Reading Roots, p opular children’s literature selections are used in whole group instructional time to help children understand the conventions of print and of reading, appreciate the pleasures of literature and reading, develop higher order thinking skills through teacher questioning and class discussion, enhance oral language development, and teach both listening and reading comprehension strategies. Additionally, a 50-minute shared story time session is designed for children to read decodable books in conjunction with the teacher. Each shared story is designed to be taught across a three-day span. In this way, phonemic awareness, phonics, handwriting and letter formation are directly taught and immediately incorporated into applied textual reading. The final 20-minutes of the KinderRoots and Reading Roots programs include an oral language development component designed to promote oral language and writing skills and to develop social skills. In Reading Wings, listening comprehension is developed in a 20-minute period, following this session a treasure hunt is created for a wide variety of children’s literature books, anthologies of children’s literature, and traditional basal stories. Each treasure hunt is geared toward the group cooperatively working on comprehension, study of literary aspects, vocabulary, fluency, and writing skills. Lastly, Adventure Island curriculum is delivered in d <span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">aily 45-minute reading lessons to develop skills that students need to become strategic readers. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">

SFA's literacy instruction is aligned with the five essential reading components, although phonics receives the greatest emphasis according to Lemann and others. Phonemic awareness activities are introduced at the kindergarten level through songs, games, and rhymes, and are further developed with blending, segmenting, and sound manipulation activities. A systematic, synthetic phonics program is used to teach beginning readers basic letter/sound combinations. Decodable texts are used to allow the children opportunity to practice their emerging decoding skills. In addition, children work in pairs, giving children practice with phonemes, decodable words, sight words, and brief sentences, all coordinated with the decodable stories. Vocabulary is developed through working in thematic units, and in grades 2 and 3, with a listening comprehension and structured writing program that is integrated with the stories. Fluency is strengthened through paired and repeated readings. Comprehension is taught with a pronounced emphasis on developing metacognitive skills.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Teachers' Role in Success for All **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Success for All requires educators throughout a school to rethink and actively change many of their practices. If teachers do not accept the changes that the model suggests, it is not likely to succeed in improving practices and positively affecting student outcomes. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Before a school can adopt SFA, SFA's website indicates that <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">80% of the faculty must agree by secret ballot to follow through with the implementation. While SFA is at pains to emphasize that "[t]he overwhelming majority of teachers do support SFA" and backs it up with research on its website, others like Lemann, Kozol, and Pogrow question whether SFA is often imposed from above by state courts, school districts, and school administrators, leaving teachers little choice if they wish to retain their employment at that school or district.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">A key component of SFA's program is its strong emphasis on professional development of its teachers (a component that's included in the cost of its program). In the first year of SFA's <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">implementation, teachers attend an initial intensive three-day training session at their school to become thoroughly acquainted with the program. Not only does this training prepare teachers to teach with the SFA program and materials, but it <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman';"> educates them as well about its underlying theory of reading development, causes of reading difficulties, the essential components of reading instruction, and the use and interpretation of assessment. This is followed by ongoing telephone consultations with SFA staff to answer teacher questions about the program and on-site SFA support visits during the year to observe classroom implementation and help administrators set goals. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Although the SFA approach relies heavily on teachers rolling out a carefully structured, literacy-heavy curriculum, teachers are permitted very little freedom. SFA regards teachers as "coaches" whose instruction is prescribed by well-organized t eacher manuals containing detailed daily lesson plans. The lack of teacher flexibility is described by Lehman as "tell[ing] schools precisely what to teach and how to teach it -- to the point of scripting, nearly minute by minute.” Park's 2008 study sheds light on the rationale for this prescriptiveness or "relentlessness" as it's described on the SFA website. Park quotes Robert Slavin, one of the founders of SFA, as stating that "if you're truly serious about change, about having teachers use research based practices every day, you've got to be pretty explicit and pretty well thought out to have that take place."


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The ‘Child’s Role’ in Success for All **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Cooperative learning plays a big part in the Success for All model, helping children develop academic skills and encouraging them to engage in teambuilding activities and other tasks that deal explicitly with interpersonal and social skill development. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Instructional processes are built around cooperative learning and a detailed supportive structure. Each instructional unit features active, integrated experiences that enhance children’s language and literacy, with relatively lesser emphasis on their cognitive, mathematical, social, personal, creative, and physical development.

According to the SFA website, at the beginning of each day, each child is greeted and made to feel welcome and relaxed. Children look at books and explore table-top activities. Concepts for the day are introduced with an active problem-solving activity. The teacher stimulates the children’s curiosity and motivates them to learn more about the topic. Children explore through concrete, hands-on experiences in a variety of learning centers. Interactive story components allow children opportunities to expand their world and explore books and stories. Children are challenged to higher levels of thinking in interaction with educators who model thinking and questioning within and beyond the story.

SFA also describes exercise and health as elements of its program. They promote physical, cognitive, gross motor skills and social development through theme-related movement activities. Children’s health, hygiene, and interpersonal skills are enhanced with discussion, exploration, and guidance.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In addition, a SFA school establishes a Family Support Team, serving to increase parents' participation in school and to identify and address particular problems such as irregular attendance, vision correction, or problems at home. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Families are encouraged to be actively engaged in their children’s learning, helping to keep families informed of their children’s school experiences so that family members can encourage their children’s learning.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> In a SFA classroom, teachers initiate classroom interactions. Since the reading curriculum involves cross-grade grouping, there is no "high class" or "low class"; all classes (except the lowest-performing first grades) have high, average, and low achievers. Groupings are revised every eight weeks so students are not relegated to a "track" from which it is difficult to move. In fact, because low achievers are likely to receive tutoring services, they are expected to move over time to higher-performing groups. Since the groups are all in one instructional level, this enables teachers to move at a very rapid pace. It avoids the need to have multiple reading groups within the class, a practice that forces teachers to assign much more seat work than necessary. Since every child in grades 1-6 is regrouped into a reading class, low achievers do not feel singled out, as they might be in a low reading group within a single class.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">I ****<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">nitiation of Classroom Interactions and Relationships **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Shared teaching and learning in the SFA classroom **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">

Cooperative learning between students and individual accountability are strong components of the SFA program. Under SFA, children often work in pairs, small groups (normally 4-5 students), or interactively as a class. Cooperative learning skills are taught and reinforced, such as holding each team member accountable for information learned, ensuring the active participation of each team member, developing strong social skills to maximize other team members’ performance as a team player, justifying thoughts and responses, and listening to and appropriately critiquing others’ contributions. At the early ages, sharing time is integrated to promote oral language development and a sense of community.

Outside of the classroom, SFA also uses all available resources within the administration, the community, the family, and the faculty to meet the needs of all children as they learn to read.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Why Use Success for All in the Classroom? **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">

If one were teaching a class of literacy-challenged, early elementary school students in a nonperforming school located in a low-income neighborhood, the SFA program could be quite effective. Success for All arguably makes learning to read fun for students, incorporating hands-on activities and group work. Providing students with collaborative opportunities to learn and teach each other encourages students to enjoy learning and therefore comprehend the materials. It is impressive that such a strong emphasis is placed on working with the families and communities to continue the learning process outside of school. Although some dispute the validity of the research demonstrating its success, most agree that SFA's literacy curriculum has been proven to work, particularly in the early elementary grades. The loss of teacher autonomy inherent in SFA's prescriptive curriculum, however, cuts against its use in higher-performing early childhood and elementary schools.

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 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Sources Used **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">A) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Success For All Foundation website, [] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">B) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Borman, Geoffrey D and Gina M Hewes. “The Long-Term Effects and Cost-Effectiveness of Success for All,” American Educational Research Association, Vol. 24, Iss. 4; pg. 243, Winter 2002. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">C) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Robinson, Carol. “Success for All Report,” Florida Center for Reading Research, December 2002. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">D) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Cramer, Elizabeth, Beth Harry and Janette Klingner. “Challenges in the Implementation of Success for All in Four High-Need Urban Schools,” The Elementary School Journal, Volume 106, Number 4, 2006. E) Pogrow, Stanley. "The Unsubstantiated 'Success' of Success for All," Phi Beta Kappan, April 2000, Vol. 81,Issue 8, p.596. F) Pogrow, Stanley. "What is an Exemplary Program, and Why Should Anyone Care? A Reaction to Slavin." Educational Researcher, 27(7), 22–29, 1998. G) Pogrow, Stanley. (2000, September). Success for All Does Not Produce Success for Students. //Phi Delta Kappan, 82// (1), 67-80. H) Lemann, Nicholas. (1998, November). Ready, READ! //The Atlantic Monthly//, //282// (5), 92-104. I) Making Schools Work with Hedrick Smith. (2005, May). School-by-School Reform: Success For All. Retrieved September 26, 2009, from [] J) Lubove, Seth. (2000, November 13). Success for Whom? //Forbes Magazine//, Volume __,__ __[]__ K) Kozol, Jonathan. (2006, April). Success for All: Trying to Make an End Run Around Inequality and Segregation. //Phi Delta Kappan, 87// (8), 624-626. L) Park, Vicki, & Datnow, Amanda. (2008). Collaborative Assistance in a Highly Prescribed School Reform Model: The Case of Success for All. //Peabody Journal of Education, 83//, 400-422. M) Munoz, Marco & Dossett, Dena. (2004). Educating Students Placed At Risk: Evaluating the Impace of Success for All. //Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 9// (3), 261-277. N) U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. (2009, August). //What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report, Beginning Reading: Success for All//. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. O) U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.. (2009, January). //What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report, Early Childhood Education: Curiosity Corner//. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. P) U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. (2007, July 2). //What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report, English Language Learners: Success for All//. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Group members: Lori Dunn* Jenna Serino Jonathan Reinsdorf Claudia Sayre Valerie Wakeham <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">