Success For All (SFA)

Category: Language/Reading

Grade Level: K to 6

  1. What is the purpose of the Success For All program?

Success for All (SFA) is an elementary school restructuring program designed to deliver intensive academic assistance to student populations at risk of reading failure. The main goal of SFA is to realign resources and use research-based instructional programs to ensure success both academically and socially. Secondary goals include reducing the number of referrals to special education, reducing the number of students who fall behind in the early grades, increasing daily attendance, and addressing family needs.

2. When and by whom was it developed?

Robert Slavin and Nancy Madden at John Hopkins University developed SFA in 1986. They designed SFA in response to a challenge from Baltimore City Public Schools to develop an approach that would ensure the success of every child in schools serving large numbers of disadvantaged students. They established the first SFA school in 1987 and, since then, over 1,130 schools in the United States have adopted it. The approach has also been adapted for use in Canada, Mexico, Australia, Israel and England.

3. With whom can it be used?

SFA was designed to support all children’s learning (Kindergarten to Gr. 6) in general education classrooms. The program encourages schools to remove children from the regular classroom only under extreme circumstances and when all other options have been exhausted.

3. What are the main components of Success For All?

SFA has somewhat different elements at various sites, primarily due to the amount of funding available and the special needs of the local student population. However, the following is a brief review of the main components:

(a)Reading Program:

Beginning in Kindergarten, SFA emphasizes the development of basic language skills, and sound and letter recognition. The curriculum provides a mix of academic readiness (i.e. Peabody Language Development Kits orStory Telling and Retelling in which students retell stories read by the teachers), music, art and movement activities.

The SFA reading approach is divided into two programs – Beginning Reading and Beyond the Basics:

  1. The Beginning Reading program is introduced in the middle of kindergarten or at the beginning of grade one and is usually completed by early spring of grade one. The program emphasizes the use of phonics and whole language approaches to develop decoding skills and comprehension abilities. The reading program uses a series of ‘shared stories’ that have a phonetically controlled and key word sight vocabulary. In addition, teachers read children’s literature to students daily, and students read silently and aloud, sing, trace letters with their fingers, make discriminations, discuss stories, make predictions, and use context clues.
  1. Beyond the Basics is a reading approach used in SFA from approximately the spring of grade one to the end of grade six. The program uses a form of Co-operative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) with stories. CIRC is comprised of co-operative learning activities in reading and writing/language arts that act to build comprehension and thinking skills, fluency and pleasure in reading. Stories are introduced using the school system’s novels or basal readers in conjunction with a series of activities that are completed in four to five member teams (i.e. partner reading, process writing, story retell, spelling)

(b)Regrouping: Students spend most of the day assigned to conventional, heterogeneous, age-grouped classes of approximately 25 children. However, during a regular 90-minute reading period students are regrouped into classes according to reading performance levels, irrespective of age. Typically, reading groups are 5-10 children less than in the regular classroom, due to the use of tutors and other staff serving as reading teachers.

(c)One-to-one Tutoring: Students having difficulty learning to read receive tutoring from certified teachers or other qualified and trained instructional staff for 20 minutes each day during times other than reading or math periods. Priority is given to students in grade one, on the assumption that the primary function of the tutor is to help all students become successful readers early, before they start to struggle and fall behind. In general, tutors support students’ success in the regular reading curriculum, identify learning problems and use different strategies to teach the same skills.

(d)Eight-Week Reading Assessments: When SFA is initially introduced to a school, all children are given informal reading inventories by tutors to decide on reading group placement. Subsequently, reading teachers assess student progress through informal and formal curriculum-based reading assessments given in 8-week intervals. Results are used to decide which children require tutoring, to reevaluate reading grouping and to suggest other adaptations in students’ programs. In addition, findings help to identify students requiring other types of assistance, such as family interventions or screening for vision or hearing problems.

(e)Family Support Team: Parents are an essential component of the SFA program. Therefore, each school has a ‘family support team’ to increase family involvement and to make families more comfortable in the school. The family support team may organize programs for parents (i.e. Raising Readers) or support children who are having difficulties at home (by providing referrals to social service agencies). The family support team usually consists of an administrator (principal or vice-principal), a parent liaison, the SFA facilitator, and others such as social workers, counsellors, school psychologists, attendance monitors, teachers and volunteers.

5. What supplies and materials are needed to implement SFA?

Robert Slavin and his team at John Hopkins University require schools that are adopting the SFA model to work with the following specific materials they provide in Kindergarten through Grade One:

Curriculum guides and materials

Children’s literature

Daily lesson plans

Teacher manuals

For grades two through six, the developers provide materials called “Treasure Hunts”, and tailored reading materials already used in the school (i.e. widely used basal readers, novels and anthologies).

6. What instructional support/professional development is required to implement SFA?

Teachers receive lesson plans, manuals, and specific instructional guidance for each part of the curriculum. Professional development and technical assistance is provided by trainers (members of the developer’s staff) as part of the basic cost of the program, with pre and post implementation workshops for all instructional staff. In addition, advanced training is provided for the principal and “program facilitator”, who works as an on-site coach/coordinator in the school.

Prior to implementation, a secret ballot endorsement by 80% of the school staff is required as a clear commitment to the success of the program. Once accepted, schools receive training assistance and materials as well as continuing support from a network of researchers and other SFA schools.

7. What is the cost of implementation?

SFA estimates that for a school with 500 students the first year costs to run the program would be $90-$100 per student for training, materials and follow-up support. Costs can vary if new staff are required to fill SFA positions (i.e. facilitator or tutors).

8. To what extent has research shown SFA to be useful?

Research suggests that the SFA program has strong positive effects on the reading performance of children, with particularly large impact on those who are most at risk, many of whom have serious learning problems. Studies have shown substantial and lasting changes in students’ school success. For example, Hopkins, Youngman, Harris and Wordsworth (1999) that students in England appeared to be making as much progress in one term of reading as they would normally have been expected to make in one year.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr. Robert Slavin

Success For All Foundation

200 W. Towsontown Blvd.

Baltimore, MD 21204

Phone: 1-800-548-4998

Fax: 410-324-4444

E-mail:

Web site:

References

  1. Chambers, B., Abrami, P.C., Massue, F.M., & Morrison, S. (1998). Success for all:

Evaluating an early-intervention program for children at risk of school failure. Canadian Journal of Education, 23,, 357-372.

  1. Hopkins, D., Youngman, M., Harris, A., & Wordsworth, J. (1999). Evaluation of the initial effects and implementation of Success for All in England. Journal of Research in Reading, 22,, 257-270.
  2. Madden, N.A., Slavin, R.E., Wasik, B.A., & Dolan, L.J. (1997). Reading, writing, and language arts in Success for All. In S.A. Stahl, & D.A. Hayes (Eds.), Instructional models in reading (pp. 109-130). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  3. Ross, S.M., Smith, L.J., Casey, J., & Slavin, R.E. (1995). Increasing the academic success of disadvantaged children: An examination of alternative early intervention programs. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 773-800.
  4. Slavin, R.E., Karweit, N.L., Wasik, B.A., Madden, N.A., & Dolan, L.J. (1994). Success For All: A comprehensive approach to prevention and early intervention. In R.E. Slavin, N.L. Karweit & B.A. Wasik(Eds.), Preventing early school failure (pp. 175-205). Needham Heights,Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
  5. Slavin, R.E., & Madden, N.A. (2001). Success for All: An overview. In R.E. Slavin & N.A. Madden (Eds.), Success for All (pp. 3-15). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  6. Wasik, B.A., & Slavin, R.E. (1994). Preventing early reading failure with one-to-one tutoring. In R.E. Slavin, N.L. Karweit & B.A. Wasik (Eds.), Preventing early school failure (pp.175-205). Needham Heights, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
  7. American Federation of Teachers: K-12/Educational Issues Department: Seven Promising Programs for Reading and English Language Arts. (n.d.) Retrieved November 17, 2001 from http:

9. Educator’s guide to schoolwide

reform. (n.d.) Retrieved November 17, 2001 from http:

Reviewed by: Deborah Sand