This randomized controlled study was conducted in 70 California high schools that serve high proportions of African American, Latino/a, and English Language Learner (ELL) students. 87 teachers participated in ten days of Reading Apprenticeship teacher professional development in biology.
Teacher surveys and interviews indicate that teachers provided more engaging biology and literacy instruction than control teachers over the one-year course of the intervention. In addition, scoring of teacher assignments ranking features of biology and literacy instruction showed that treatment teachers provided more effective assignments than control teachers. Students had significantly higher standardized test scores in biology, reading comprehension, and English language arts than control students. At the end of the year, Reading Apprenticeship students were well over a year ahead of the control students in these areas.