Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction (ECRI)

Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction (ECRI). A program designed as a practical guide to teach reading and other language skills to students in grades K-12. In-service for teachers is based on research findings on effective instruction.

Description

The Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction’s purpose is to teach teachers so they can use effective teaching strategies that prevent failure. These strategies include: eliciting accurate and rapid responses during instruction, establishing high levels of mastery, maintaining on-task behavior, integrating the teaching of language skills, using effective management and monitoring systems, varying schedules and classes so students can invest the time and energy needed to learn, and supervising students’ hands-on activities and practice. The strategies are incorporated into the teaching of reading, spelling, grammar, creative and expository writing, literature, speaking, and drama skills, and are extremely effective in content instruction such as science and social studies.

Students’ attention is sustained with the momentum of the instruction and reinforcement offered during practice time. Overt responses appeal to all preferred modalities of learning. Instruction is provided by ECRI so teachers can: utilize critical teacher behaviors identified through research, develop a class and/or school scheduling and record keeping system for mastery and individualization, and teach reading and language skills effectively.

Teachers learn to teach phonemic awareness, word recognition skills, vocabulary through phonics and word structure methods, literal, interpretative, critical, and creative comprehension, study skills, literature, and composition as they use readers, literature series, novels, trade and content books typically available in the school.

Students demonstrate mastery through their participation in small-group discussions, writing, locating, organizing, and evaluating information as well as with criterion referenced tests written for the different reading and literature series and with standardized tests.

ECRI students demonstrate competency in their ability to reason, solve problems, apply knowledge, read, write, and communicate. ECRI students remain in school longer because of their success in school and their higher academic scores.

ECRI is included as Evidence for ESSA by the Johns Hopkins School of Education. It has been included in other compilations in years past such as "Catalog of the Education Commission of the States" (review an excerpt of the ECS Catalog at: https://www.ecri.cc/documents/ECSArticle.pdf) as a Promising Practice, and was included in the "Catalog of School Reform Models" by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (review an excerpt of the NWREL catalog at: https://www.ecri.cc/documents/NWRELCatalog.pdf).

Evidence of Effectiveness

Regular education ECRI students demonstrate significantly greater gains (p<.01) on the reading subscales of standardized achievement tests than (1) comparison group students receiving their regular reading instruction and (2) expectancies derived from national normative data.

Special needs ECRI students (Chapter I, bilingual, remedial) and special education students (learning disabled) demonstrate significantly (p<.01) greater than expected gains (derived from national normative data) and the Total Reading composite scales of standardized achievement tests.