Newport News, Virginia
Newport News School District

Author:
Beth Check

Date evaluation report completed:
August 1998

Months/years covered by evaluation:
9 weeks during the 1997-1998 school year.

Number of schools involved:
4 Title I schools
31 students

Demographics of sample population:
Newport News is a mid-size city. There are 33,000 students in 30 schools in this district. The student population is approximately 59% African American, 39% Caucasian, 4% Hispanic and 2% Asian. The students chosen for the Soar to Success program were all from Title I schools and were reading 1-3 years below grade level.

Purpose of study:
To evaluate the effectiveness of the Soar to Sucess program.

Methodology:
The students received intervention instruction for 9 weeks. The groups met for 40 minutes per day, five days a week. The classroom teachers delivered the instruction. The Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) Test was used to determine the growth from 3rd to 4th grade and from 4th to 5th grade.

Measures/indicators used to assess effectiveness:
Degree of Reading Power

Findings: The average DRP growth for students in grade 4 was 10.9 which equals approximately 1.4 grade levels. The average DRP growth for grade 5 students was 14.1 which equals approximately 2.8 grade levels.

	Previous Year TAAS	TAAS (after Soar instruction)
3rd–Graders		68% passed
4th–Graders	55% passed	85% passed
5th–Graders	32% passed	64% passed