Supporting young struggling readers at Success for All schools in the United States and the Netherlands:Comparative case studies

Success for All, a multi-tiered school reform program, has its origins in the US and has recently expanded to the Netherlands. Using a multiple case study approach, we investigated similarities and differences in the way struggling readers are supported at two Success for All schools in the US and two in the Netherlands. First- and second-grade teachers and other staff members involved in the implementation of Success for All and the support of struggling readers were interviewed. We concluded that American and Dutch interviewees agreed on the benefits of Success for All for struggling readers, such as the engaging whole-class lessons and the possibility to offer tutoring. Furthermore, in both countries a tension was observed between the scriptedness of Success for All and the need for flexibility in the support of struggling readers. Regarding differences, we observed that both contextual and cultural factors led to variations in the way struggling readers are supported

Effective differentiation Practices:A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on the cognitive effects of differentiation practices in primary education

This systematic review gives an overview of the effects of differentiation practices on language and math performance in primary education, synthesizing the results of empirical studies (n = 21) on this topic since 1995. We extracted 78 effect sizes from the included studies. We found that using computerized systems as a differentiation tool and using differentiation as part of a broader program or reform had small to moderate positive effects on students’ performance. Between- or within-class homogeneous ability grouping had a small negative effect on low-ability students, but no effect on others. The finding that computer technology can be a useful tool to facilitate differentiated instruction is not covered in earlier reviews. Moreover, our findings emphasize that homogeneous ability grouping alone is not enough to guarantee differentiated instruction. This stresses the importance of embedding differentiation practices in a broader educational context