Does Structure of Content Delivery or Degree of Professional Development Support Matter for Student Reading Growth in High-Poverty Settings?

We addressed whether the degree of structure of reading content delivery to the children or degree of professional development support for the teachers was related to kindergarten through second-grade students’ 2-year reading growth in high-poverty, low-performing schools. There were four categories of data sources: (a) classroom, curriculum-based, reading assessments; (b) principal questionnaires; (c) information about staff development and implementation of reading-instruction reform; and (d) demographic information. Six reading variables were created from the classroom reading assessments. Two variables were created from staff development logs and school-based reading-instruction implementation plans—“degree to which content delivery to children was structured” and “degree to which teachers were supported in learning the instructional structure and content.” Control variables such as student poverty status and percentage of African American students in the school were created from the principal questionnaire and demographic data. Hierarchical linear models were used. Main conclusions were as follows: (a) Less structured content delivery overshadowed more structured delivery for student growth, but there was added value of being in schools with more characteristics associated with effectiveness. (b) Students who made the greatest growth were in schools with higher support for teachers. But in low-support settings, students made more growth if they were in schools with more characteristics associated with school effectiveness. (c) The degree of structure of content delivery and degree of professional development support were significantly related to growth in phonics knowledge, but not to growth in other reading subprocesses.