Laying the Foundation + Alabama Reading Initiative + Alabama State Department of Education = Increased Student Achievement

Laying the Foundation Implementation Pilot

ARI has been given the gift of supporting a pilot program that has been offered to our region.  A key goal of PLAN 2020 is for schools in Alabama to increase the number of students who meet college readiness benchmarks in core subject areas.  To support this vision, a partnership between the Alabama State Department of Education, Alabama Reading Initiative, and A+ College Ready has been formed to support a pilot program with 8^th grade English teachers across the state.  The assumption of the pilot is that when Laying the Foundation infused courses, designed by teams of Alabama teachers, are aligned with a scope and sequence and implemented faithfully by teachers who are supported by ARI and given the resources they need to be successful, the number of students who increase their college readiness score in the subject area taught will increase significantly in one year. 

To test this assumption, the number of students in each 8^th grade English class achieving the college readiness benchmark score on ASPIRE 2014 administration while they were in grade 7 will be compared to the number of students achieving the college readiness benchmark score on the Aspire test given to the same cohort of students in 8th grade in the Spring of 2015.  Changes in the number of students reaching the college readiness benchmark in the 8^th grade class will be tracked, as well as overall student score increases.  We are excited to have the opportunity to support as many as four schools in region 4!