Red Clay Consolidated School District: Transforming 4th and 5th grade literacy with 95 Phonics Core Program
Helping teachers provide the best possible literacy instruction is key in unlocking the power of literacy for every child. The Research Impact Series provides educators and administrators with short research profiles of school districts and schools making a measurable difference in student achievement using science of reading-aligned and evidence-based programs and strategies in the classroom. In our second profile in the series, we take a look at Red Clay Consolidated School District in Delaware and their implementation of the Tier 1 resource, 95 Phonics Core Program®, in 4th and 5th grade.
District snapshot
- Location: Wilmington, Delaware
- Total students: over 16,000
- Campuses: 28 total, 15 with elementary schools
- Title 1, Part A funded: 10 elementary schools
- 1 dual language, two-way Spanish immersion school
- 1 dual language, two-way Spanish immersion school within a school
The teachers who’ve embraced 95 Phonics Core Program for 4th and 5th grade tell me, ‘This is what my students need!’”
Kelly Harkins
A common misconception that persists is that 4th and 5th graders don’t need explicit phonics instruction. However, recent national statistics indicate upper elementary students are showing minimal improvement in literacy, negatively impacting their comprehension skills. The Institute of Education Sciences’ What Works Clearinghouse and expert panel summarized 32 studies regarding reading interventions for grades 4-9 and recommend, with strong evidence, to “build students’ decodable skills so they can read complex multisyllabic words” (Vaughn et al., 2022) to advance their overall literacy skills.
Red Clay Consolidated School District in Delaware recognized their upper elementary students were struggling to read and took action by implementing 95 Phonics Core Program for 4th and 5th grade. Because the district values research, they participated in an efficacy study of the implementation and outcomes with LXD Research, a third-party researcher. Using the district’s i-Ready assessment, researchers found with the addition of this advanced explicit phonics Tier 1 curriculum, significantly more 4th and 5th graders were considered on/above grade level at middle-of-year and less were considered three grade levels below.
Products used
- 95 Phonics Core Program®, part of 95 Tier 1 Phonics Solution
Timeline
- 2023-2024: nine schools in 4th and 5th grade
- 2024-2025: district wide grades 1-4 and 9 out of 14 5th grade buildings
Implementation
Red Clay Consolidated School District in Delaware implemented 95 Phonics Core Program across the district for Grade 1 through Grade 3 in the 2023-2024 school year. Next, they turned their attention to upper elementary students. The literacy team was seeing consistent trends in poor reading comprehension outcome data in the elementary buildings, grades 2-5. Further data supported that the root causes for the low outcome data in the upper elementary grades were decoding and vocabulary.
They recognized a need for advanced phonics and word study in grades 4 and 5. They were presented with an opportunity in 2023-2024 to pilot the brand new 95 Phonics Core Program for 4th and 5th grade in a research setting with 95 Percent Group and independent research group [third-party research firm] LXD Research.
The district was eager to partner with 95 Percent Group in the yearlong efficacy study [with LXD Research] as a first step to bringing structured advanced phonics to the district’s 4th and 5th grade classrooms. Twelve grade-level teams, out of twenty eight, volunteered to participate. Participating teachers received 4 hours of professional learning prior to and during implementation on the 95 Phonics Core Program for 4th and 5th graders.
Structured phonics for 4th and 5th grade reading success
95 Phonics Core Program is a Tier 1 phonics curriculum designed for grades K-5 to support students with phonics and morphology skills and reading more intricate texts. For grades 4 and 5, the 30-minute daily lessons focus on word study—students move beyond simple decoding to understand words in decodable and non-decodable text passages. The lessons include explicit instructions on syllable types and morphology, reading authentic texts, and demonstrating comprehension through oral and written responses.
Middle-of-year and end-of-year studies 2023-2024
Third party research firm LXD Research conducted middle-of-year (MOY) and end-of-year (EOY) studies for the 2023-2024 school year to investigate the impact of 95 Phonics Core Program Tier 1 instruction on 4th and 5th graders’ literacy. Using the district’s assessment of i-Ready from the beginning-of-year (BOY) and middle-of-year (MOY), LXD Research was able to run analyses to understand the impact of 95 Phonics Core Program on student scores.
The data: student outcomes
BOY to MOY
The middle-of-year findings showed that using 95 Phonics Core Program as core instruction can improve students placement levels on i-Ready and close the gap of students three grades behind.
- The number of 4th and 5th grade students considered on/above grade level almost doubled from beginning-of-year (BOY) to middle-of-year (MOY).
BOY to EOY
Fourth and fifth graders using 95 Phonics Core Program had mean score improvements from beginning-of-year to end-of-year, significant performance level changes, and substantial improvement on subdomains.
4th grade
- Overall scale scores increased by 30 points
- Significantly more students were on/above grade level by EOY—a 24% increase from BOY
- Phonics subdomain had average mean growth of +44.8 points
5th grade
- Overall scale scores increased by 27 points
- Significantly more students were on/above grade level by EOY—an 11% increase from BOY
- Phonics subdomain had average mean growth of +31.2 points
Significantly more fourth and fifth graders using 95 Phonics Core Program were considered on/above grade level by the EOY than in BOY.
Benefit highlights
The largest benefit is that we have a system.
Kelly Harkins
ELA Supervisor Kelly Harkins reports benefits:
District leaders, building leaders, literacy specialists, educators
Teacher benefits
Student benefits
“One of the biggest benefits for students is their knowledgeable teachers who are now teaching phonics patterns from a deep understanding of the why behind instructional dialogue.”
Learn more
95 Phonics Core Program®, a core program in our 95 Tier 1 Phonics solution, serves students in grades K-5 with grade-level specific content to meet them where they are and strengthen their reading skills
Beginning of Year to End of Year research on Red Clay Consolidated District
Read the BOY to EOY report by LXD Research to see mean score improvements, significant performance level changes, and substantial improvement on subdomains.
Why upper elementary still needs phonics
Want to understand why Red Clay invested in advanced phonics for 4th and 5th grade? Explore the research-backed reasons in this article from Chief Academic Officer, Laura Stewart.
Resources
- Share DL. Phonological recoding and self-teaching: sine qua non of reading acquisition. Cognition. 1995 May;55(2):151-218; discussion 219-26. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(94)00645-2. PMID: 7789090.
- Heggie, Lindsay & Wade-Woolley, Lesly. (2017). Reading Longer Words: Insights Into Multisyllabic Word Reading. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. 2. 86-94. 10.1044/persp2.SIG1.86.
- Vaughn, S., Gersten, R., Dimino, J., Taylor, M. J., Newman-Gonchar, R., Krowka, S., Kieffer, M. J., McKeown, M., Reed, D., Sanchez, M., St. Martin, K., Wexler, J., Morgan, S., Yañez, A., & Jayanthi, M. (2022). Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9 (WWC 2022007). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from https://whatworks.ed.gov/.
