It is true that much of the research cited in the IES Practice Guide, “Improving Adolescent Literacy, Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices,”(Kamil, et al, 2009) was conducted with students in the 4th and 5th grade, rather than the high school population, about which recommendations are made.  The panel of experts who developed the Practice Guide followed a set of selection procedures that attended to the quality of the research and its’ broad applicability to struggling readers, regardless of their age and grade.  The selection criteria ensured that the studies had been conducted in accordance with rigor and with a large enough sample of students to detect statistically any impact that the intervention might have caused. Thus, regardless of the age/grade band, the foundation of the research was that it could produce valid and reliable findings to support recommendations for adolescent literacy instruction.

Conducting rigorous research takes time, and results of several large studies funded by the Department of Education, conducted with adolescent populations are currently under way and will be published in the near future. 

For example, the final findings of the Enhanced Reading Instruction (ERO) report will be produced in late 2009 or early 2010.  Previous reports (Kemple, et al, 2008; Corrin, et al, 2008) of the project have discussed findings for each of the two implementation years, but the third or “capstone” report will include information about how students who participated in the study as ninth graders fared in tenth and eleventh grade.  Among the data that will be discussed are students’ scores on their states’ standardized test, their grades in core content areas, and any differences in the number of referrals and discipline problems among treatment and control students.  Previous reports are available from the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) website (http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc).

The IES Regional Education Labs (RELs) conduct rigorous evaluations of interventions, and several of them have studied reading interventions.  No reports have been released yet, but the studies are nearing completion and reports will soon be released.  The RELs have produced other research that is helpful to educators of adolescents, most significantly a discussion of adolescent literacy best practices in five states (Bates, et al, 2009)

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), which evaluates research studies to determine their rigor, has recently launched a new set of reviews on adolescent literacy interventions. The WWC produces usable summaries of the evidence gathered from these studies and publishes them in ways that can help educators make important decisions about how to address students’ literacy needs.  In addition to the Practice Guides, the WWC has developed a valuable website, Doing What Works.  The website does far more than merely explaining the implications of research:  it features video clips of teachers employing evidence-based best practices and interviews with teachers and administrators who explain why these practices can make a difference for learners.  Adolescent literacy is among the topics presented on the website.  To access these resources, visit the IES website (http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc; for the WWC reports, see http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/topic.aspx?tid=15 ).

There are many other sources for current research.  The International Reading Association’s Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (JAAL) publishes peer-reviewed articles about both qualitative and quantitative research.  Studies in JAAL are often relatively small scale and of short duration, and some are conducted by teacher-researchers.  The journal, which is available to IRA members, is an invaluable resource , especially for school-based educators.  IRA’s research journal, Reading Research Quarterly (RRQ), frequently publishes studies conducted with adolescents and syntheses of research.  For example, RRQ recently published a systematic review of research on four types of interventions for adolescent struggling readers (Slavin, et al, 2008). See www.reading.org.

 Finally organizations as diverse as the Alliance for Excellent Education (www.all4ed.org), Carnegie Corporation of New York (www.carnegie.org ), the National Governors Association (www.nga.org ), and the test company ACT (www.act.org and www.act.com ) – along with many others – recognize the important of adolescent literacy and the challenges of helping all students, not just those who struggle, become ready for the literacy challenges of college and entry into the workforce and the military.  They disseminate research summaries and policy recommendations grounded in rigorous research evidence.  Often these publications discuss the policy implications that can be drawn from the research to help educators and policy makers make the best possible decisions for adolescent students.  One very important effort is the work the ACT has done to identify the kinds of literacy skills all of today’s high school students need to be prepared for post-secondary life (see ACT, 2006, and later publications).  Additionally, the National Assessment Governing Board has launched an impressive research effort on the same topic – what students need to know and be able to do to move successfully out of the K -12 environment and into the wider world. 

So – the answer to the question of where the research is really two-fold.  Rigorous research on reading acquisition and growth conducted with younger students can have great applicability for older students as well, so long as the readers of the research situation findings and implications within the right learning contexts.  And second – research is being done that can have direct impact on older students.  However, the research and summaries of it have not been consolidated into one document like the Report of the National Reading Panel.