Summary

The evaluation aimed to assess the effectiveness of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program, to identify the extent to which the program was operating as intended and to assess whether the program had improved the educational outcomes of Aboriginal students. Focus on Reading 3-6 was designed to provide professional learning support to classroom teachers in a school or community of schools. The main goals of the program were to increase teacher knowledge about how to develop fluent readers and to develop comprehension and vocabulary skills based on effective evidence-based practices. The evaluation methodology comprised a knowledge review, scoping of data sets, site visits, and stakeholder interviews and surveys. In both the quantitative and qualitative research, the great majority of teachers and school staff reported increased knowledge and skills in teaching reading. Gains in mean reading scores were also observed for all student cohorts at Focus on Reading 3-6 schools.