GOSA Releases 2015-2016 End-of-Year Evaluation Report for the Reading Mentors Program

Today, the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) released the end-of-year evaluation report for the Reading Mentors Program: A Language and Literacy Partnership (RMP). GOSA’s Research and Evaluation unit worked with program staff to develop an evaluation plan and conduct the evaluation. The End-of-Year Evaluation Report includes:

• A summary of the RMP’s mission and goals,
• A profile of participating schools,
• A description of the evaluation methodology,
• A discussion of the findings for each evaluation instrument, and
• Recommendations for future practice.

The Reading Mentors Program: A Language and Literacy Partnership (RMP) is Governor Deal’s K-3 literacy professional learning program that aims to improve the efficacy of literacy instruction through comprehensive coaching support for teachers and leaders at participating schools. Participating schools submitted applications to be a part of the program. Language and Literacy Specialists (LLSs) work with participating teachers, coaches, and administrators to provide research-based professional learning, personalized one-on-one coaching based on individual needs, and support for data-driven instruction. The goal of the RMP is to facilitate the change needed to strengthen instructional practices and increase the percentage of students reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade. The RMP is a three-year program that currently serves 60 schools in 22 districts in Georgia.

Key findings from the 2015-2016 school year include:

• LLSs provided coaching support to schools on research-based instructional practices, assessment strategies, and data review.
• According to end-of-year survey results, over 80% of participating coaches, administrators, and district staff feel very or extremely supported by LLSs and feel the RMP is very or extremely valuable to meeting literacy goals.
• Approximately 60% of teacher survey respondents feel very or extremely supported by the LLS and feel the RMP is valuable.
• The percentage of teachers who LLSs identified as proficient or exemplary in employing research-based, engaging instructional strategies (66%) and using assessment data to drive instruction (63%) increased by 37 percentage points from the beginning of the school year.
• The percentage of all students meeting reading benchmark goals increased by three percentage points to 62% at the end of the year.
• The percentage of students meeting reading benchmark goals increased for kindergarten and first grade but decreased for second and third grade.
• The percentage of second and third grade students meeting benchmark goals in oral reading fluency dropped from 58% to 52%.
• 52% of participating schools saw growth in the percentage of students meeting benchmarks.

The RMP staff are using the evaluation results to inform and strengthen program implementation for the 2016-2017 school year, particularly for second and third grade teachers.

Please click here to read the Executive Summary for the 2015-2016 Reading Mentors Program End-of-Year Evaluation Report.

Please click here to read the full 2015-2016 End-of-Year Evaluation Report for the Reading Mentors Program.