A teacher-training program called the Pacific Communities with High Performance in Literacy Development, or Pacific CHILD, improved reading and comprehension skills of 4th and 5th grade students, according to a new study.
For the study, researchers from the U.S. Department of Education’s Regional Educational Laboratory for the Pacific region randomly assigned 45 schools in Hawaii, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, representing more than 3,000 students, to receive either intensive teacher training in 4th and 5th grades through the Pacific CHILD program, or conduct business as usual.
Teachers in participating schools significantly improved their teaching knowledge and practice, researchers found, and that growth translated into better student reading achievement. In 5th grade, researchers found the students of participating teachers in Hawaii and the Northern Mariana Islands scored on average 634.3 on a standardized test of reading comprehension, compared with the 629 average score of children in nonparticipating schools.
