More Than a Reading Intervention: Teachers Working Together to Improve the Reading Achievement of Students from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

A diverse, Midwestern, high-poverty urban school district, under the guidance of a university reading professor with expertise in research-based instruction and reading intervention, began a professional-development initiative that resulted in improved reading achievement for its students. This article presents the background, rationale, and components of the model of effective reading instruction used in this initiative, Building Beginning Readers, and focuses on the reading achievement at one school over the course of 8 years. The gap between the achievement of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their White peers narrowed considerably, and the percentage of children identified for special education decreased from 18% to 8%.