July 17, 2012
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Two new intervention reports from the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviewing the research on Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) and Reading Edge are now available in ERIC. Intervention reports present a summary of findings of the most reliable research on a given program, practice, or policy in education.
CIRC is a reading and writing program for students in grades 2-6, with three principal elements: story-related activities, direct instruction in reading comprehension, and integrated language arts/writing. The WWC's report on CIRC, originally published in July 2007, has been updated to include reviews of 27 new studies released since that time. One study is a randomized controlled trial that meets WWC evidence standards without reservations, and one study is a quasi-experimental design that meets WWC evidence standards with reservations. These two studies included approximately 700 students in grades 3 and 4 who attended elementary schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Based on these two studies, the WWC found CIRC to have potentially positive effects on comprehension and no discernible effects on general reading achievement for beginning readers. The full report is now available in ERIC at ED533111.
Reading Edge is a middle school literacy program that emphasizes cooperative learning, goal setting, feedback, classroom management techniques, and the use of metacognitive strategy. The program is a component of the Success for All whole-school reform model. The WWC reviewed 37 studies that investigated the effects of Reading Edge on adolescent readers. One study is a randomized controlled trial that meets WWC evidence standards without reservations. It included 405 sixth-grade students from two middle schools, one in Florida and one in West Virginia. Based on this study, the WWC found Reading Edge to have no discernible effects on comprehension for adolescent readers. The complete intervention report may be found in ERIC at ED533259.
In addition to intervention reports, the WWC produces practice guides, quick reviews, single study reviews, and other materials. To learn more about the WWC, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, and its work, visit whatworks.ed.gov.
