Successful results for Success for All 

• SFA is an effective vehicle for teaching phonics. In the average SFA school, the program registered a notable, statistically significant impact on a measure of phonics skills for second-graders who had been in SFA for all three years, compared with their control group counterparts. Students in the average SFA school performed better than the average control group school on tests of reading fluency and comprehension, but not significantly.
• For a subgroup of special concern to policymakers and practitioners - students entering school with low pre-literacy skills - SFA appears to be especially effective. Second-graders in the average SFA school who had started kindergarten in the bottom half of the sample in terms of their knowledge of the alphabet and their ability to sound out words registered significantly higher scores on measures of phonics skills, word recognition, and reading fluency than similar students in control group schools. The impact on comprehension for this group was also positive but not statistically significant.

In conclusion, the authors say, "The scale-up findings show that, for a modest investment, SFA reliably improves the decoding skills of students in kindergarten through second grade, and that it is especially beneficial for students who begin in the lower half in these skills." 

Johns Hopkins University 

Research in Brief

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