Enhanced Core Reading Instruction

Enhanced Core Reading Instruction will enhance your current core reading program to achieve more favorable outcomes for your students, especially struggling students.

• Professional development books provide PD for interventionists, teachers, and school leaders, regardless of the core reading program being used.
• Enhanced Core Reading Instruction utilizes predictable, explicit and effective instructional routines.
• Specific core reading program enhancements are available for grades K, 1 and 2 with the following core reading programs*:
  • Benchmark Education Company - Benchmark Advance 2018 1st and 2nd ed, Benchmark Advance 2021, Benchmark Advance 2022
  • Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Into Reading 2022
  • Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Journeys Common Core 2017
  • Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Journeys Common Core 2014
  • Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Journeys 2011
  • Imagine Learning – EL Education 2016 and 2019
  • McGraw-Hill – Wonders 2014, 2017, 2020, 2023
  • McGraw-Hill – Open Court Reading 2016 and 2023 (grades 1 and 2 only)
  • National Geographic Learning (Cengage) – Reach for Reading 2016
  • Pearson – ReadyGEN 2014
  • Saavas – myView 2020 and 2025
  • Scott Foresman – Reading Street Common Core 2013
• The Tier 2 Foundational Skills Intervention materials provide interventionists with 150 ready-to-use daily foundational skills lessons that are directly aligned with the core reading program and are intended to be pre-taught to Tier 2 students to promote success in the core curriculum.
• The Tier 1 Foundational Skills Enhancement materials provide classroom teachers with the same 150 ready-to-use daily foundational skills lessons available in the Tier 2 Foundational Skills Intervention. Teachers may use these lessons with their whole class OR with small groups to enhance their core reading instruction for all students. By presenting the same lessons pre-taught to Tier 2 students, teachers increase the likelihood of success for their students.
• Aligned with Common Core State Standards.
• Demonstrates strong evidence of effectiveness under Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for improving student reading outcomes.
• Rigorous research studies demonstrate the intervention’s positive impact on reading achievement for at-risk readers.
• Developed with support from the US Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences.
• Research on Enhanced Core Reading Instruction was reviewed by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII). The research received a rating of "convincing evidence" in the areas of participants, research design, fidelity of implementation, targeted outcome measures and broad outcome measures.

*All trademarks referenced remain the property of their respective holders, and are used by the University of Oregon and CTL solely to describe how these works supplement the referenced titles. Their use in no way indicates any relationship between UO and the holders of said trademarks. Any usage of these terms anywhere in CTL's works is done so simply as part of the description of how to use CTL's work. The description of such products does not indicate any endorsement or affiliation with the holders of said trademarks and UO is not an authorized distributor of the holders of said trademarks.

• Developed based on our experience implementing the Enhanced Core Reading Instruction model with nearly 50 elementary schools—a sample that included hundreds of first grade classrooms and thousands of students.
• Rigorous evaluations have demonstrated statistically significant and substantive impacts on the reading achievement of at-risk readers in first grade (Fien et al., 2014; Smith et al., 2016).
• Enhanced Core Reading Instruction has a positive effect on Tier 1 teachers’ quality of explicit instruction and the accuracy of group practice opportunities (Nelson-Walker et al., 2013).
• Enhanced Core Reading Instruction closes the gap for at-risk readers. First-grade, Tier 2 students receiving Enhanced Core Reading Instruction had statistically-significant, accelerated growth for Tier-2, first-grade Enhanced Core Reading Instruction students on measures of word reading, reading comprehension and a comprehensive measure of reading achievement, compared to Tier 2 students who received un-enhanced core instruction (Baker, Smolkowski, Chaparro, Smith & Fien, 2015).
• The research version of the program was the focus of a study reviewed by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII). NCII rated the study as having "convincing evidence" regarding participants, research design, fidelity of implementation, targeted outcome measures and broad outcome measures.

Smith, J. L. M., Nelson, N. J., Smolkowski, K., Baker, S. K., Fien, H. & Kosty, D. (2016). Examining the efficacy of a multitiered intervention for at-risk readers in grade 1. Elementary School Journal, 116(4), 549-573. doi:10.1086/686249

Baker, S. K., Smolkowski, K., Chaparro, E. A., Smith, J. L. M. & Fien, H. (2015). Using regression discontinuity to test the impact of a tier 2 reading intervention in first grade. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 8(2), 218-244. doi: 10.1080/19345747.2014.909548

Fien, H., Smith, J., Smolkowksi, K., Baker, S. K., Nelson, N. J., & Chaparro, E. (2014). An examination of the efficacy of a multi-tiered intervention on early reading outcomes for first grade students at risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, Advanced online publication. doi: 10.1177/0022219414521664

Nelson-Walker, N. J., Fien, H., Kosty, D. B., Smolkowski, K., Smith, J. L. M., & Baker, S. K. (2013). Evaluating the effects of a systematic intervention on first grade teachers’ explicit reading instruction. Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 36(4), 215–230. doi: 10.1177/0731948712472186