Professional Development for Reading Achievement: Results from the Collaborative Language and Literacy Instruction Project (CLLIP)

Abstract

The Collaborative Language and Literacy Instruction Project (CLLIP) is a model of professional development designed to help teachers incorporate research-based practices of literacy instruction, support mastery, and sustained use of these practices through coaching, and serve as a foundation for whole-school reform efforts. We describe the model, intervention, implementation, and subsequent results from an exploratory study in which we tested student literacy outcomes for kindergartners and fourth graders in the classrooms of CLLIP teachers against a matched comparison group. Exploratory results from a rural cohort of elementary school teachers suggest support for skill building in the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, fluency, and vocabulary. We discuss outcomes by reflecting on central program features: CLLIP strengthens teachers’ content knowledge and ties that knowledge to subject-specific content for students, has extended duration and support, is tied to state standards, and involves collective participation across a district to advance reform efforts.