Presentation at 2008 IRA Conference

Presentation at the 2008 International Reading Association Research Conference Atlanta, GA

DATE: Saturday, May 3, 2008

STRIVING READERS PROJECT: Memphis City Schools

TITLE OF PRESENTATION: Will That Work for Us? Interpreting Research from the Memphis Striving Readers Project

PRESENTERS: Ric Potts, Memphis City Schools, J. Helen Perkins, University of Memphis, Elizabeth Heeren, Memphis City Schools, Rorie Harris, Memphis City Schools, and Jill Feldman, Research for Better Schools

SUMMARY: Studies of the school-level and targeted interventions provided the backdrop for discussion of two broad themes. Discussion of the school-wide intervention established the importance of using research-based
approaches to first develop and then test the efficacy of an evolving content literacy innovation. Part of this discussion focused on using an innovation configuration (IC) mapping framework to develop a system for measuring implementation fidelity. Special emphasis was paid to challenges that arise when attempting to systematically study an innovation still in
development. Then the panel discussed the different aims and implications for providing evaluative process feedback when conducting efficacy versus effectiveness studies. The necessary restraint required of researchers to not support implementation of the targeted intervention provided the
context for discussing the trade-offs required when producing knowledge for the field takes precedence over local implementation concerns.