Integrating Research, Practice, and Design: A 10-Year Collaborative Effort to Improve Middle-Grades Reading Comprehension

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In 2003, a National Research Council Report posited that shifting the research agenda to focus on problems of practice would transform both practice and research. The Boston Public Schools became the first site for experimentation with that idea. A SERP partnership was formed around the district’s problem: middle grades instruction was not preparing students to successfully comprehend their textbooks when they reached high school. With a decade of support for sustained attention to the problem, the collaboration has produced new theory, new research instruments, new instructional programs and evidence of their impact, and new assessments. This symposium will present results in each area. The work demonstrates clearly both how practice changed research, and how research changed practice.

Sub Unit

• Division H - Research, Evaluation and Assessment in Schools / Division H - Section 1: Applied Research in Schools

Chair

• Suzanne Donovan, SERP Institute

Papers

• Overview of Changes in Educational Research During the Last 10 Years - Suzanne Donovan, SERP Institute

• Changing Theories About Reading Comprehension - Catherine E. Snow, Harvard University

• New Research Instruments to Reflect Perspective-Taking and Student Academic Language Skills - Paola Uccelli, Harvard University; Robert L. Selman, Harvard University

• New Programs to Promote Literacy Achievement - Catherine E. Snow, Harvard University; Lowry Elizabeth Hemphill, Wheelock College

• Impact on Practice: A Coach's Perspective on the Progress Made - Carol Mahedy, Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District