Our Impact
Educators in under-resourced communities who use ReadWorks access a vast library of rich texts with instructional resources, integrate them into their lessons, and develop their own knowledge about teaching reading comprehension. As a result, their students who regularly engage in ReadWorks lessons build important academic and world knowledge and vocabulary and develop engagement and agency in reading.
ReadWorks evidence is at the forefront of educational excellence.
Evaluated by world-renowned research institutions and ReadWorks' distinguished team of experts, over a decade of findings affirm ReadWorks' direct impact on educators and the students they teach.
1. ReadWorks builds teacher capacity: Teachers who participate in ReadWorks professional learning report clear intentions to change their practice. 91% say they will increase their focus on building background knowledge and vocabulary in reading instruction. 96% identify specific new strategies they plan to use to build background knowledge and vocabulary.
2. ReadWorks builds the background knowledge and vocabulary that power comprehension: In multiple rigorous experimental research studies, students using ReadWorks materials made significantly greater gains in both background knowledge and vocabulary compared to control group students. Teachers see this in action. Nine out of 10 report that ReadWorks helps them build their students' background knowledge and vocabulary.
3. ReadWorks builds students’ reading confidence and engagement: More than 4 out of 5 report that ReadWorks supports students in becoming more engaged, confident readers who develop agency in their reading choices. In a controlled study, students using ReadWorks showed increased engagement in just nine weeks.
1. ReadWorks builds teacher capacity: Teachers who participate in ReadWorks professional learning report clear intentions to change their practice. 91% say they will increase their focus on building background knowledge and vocabulary in reading instruction. 96% identify specific new strategies they plan to use to build background knowledge and vocabulary.
2. ReadWorks builds the background knowledge and vocabulary that power comprehension: In multiple rigorous experimental research studies, students using ReadWorks materials made significantly greater gains in both background knowledge and vocabulary compared to control group students. Teachers see this in action. Nine out of 10 report that ReadWorks helps them build their students' background knowledge and vocabulary.
3. ReadWorks builds students’ reading confidence and engagement: More than 4 out of 5 report that ReadWorks supports students in becoming more engaged, confident readers who develop agency in their reading choices. In a controlled study, students using ReadWorks showed increased engagement in just nine weeks.
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ReadWorks products have efficacy at their core. |
ReadWorks has earned the prestigious Research-Based Design, Learner Variability, and Practitioner-Informed Design product certifications from Digital Promise. ReadWorks has earned EduEvidence certifications for Efficacy and Effectiveness, these certifications provide independent validation that ReadWorks meets global edtech quality standards. See our Theory of Change.
Certifies that ReadWorks is a well-designed and evidence-based product that has positively impacted learners.
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Recognizes the credible research base showing ReadWorks’ impact on student learning outcomes.
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Highlights our ongoing collaboration with educators to ensure our resources remain practical, impactful, and responsive to classroom needs.
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ReadWorks is built on the science of reading. |
All of ReadWorks products are developed from the National Reading Panel, the RAND Reading Study Group, and the most current research on the science of reading. The science of reading shows how reading is an incredibly complex process that depends on an array of skills and knowledge. ReadWorks’ pillars of Building Background Knowledge, Growing Vocabularies, and Strengthening Strategic Reading are three major components in this process of building reading comprehension:
ReadWorks Pillars of Reading Comprehension with Scarborough’s Reading Rope
The ReadWorks ApproachReadWorks supplemental resources are designed to help students consolidate the skills they are learning on both strands of the reading rope:
Language Comprehension: The science shows us that these threads become the biggest contributors to students' comprehension as they become more automatic with word-reading skills and challenging texts. ReadWorks passages both complement and build on this growth to support these leading predicators of reading comprehension. Word Recognition: The science shows us that all students benefit from direct, explicit, and systematic phonics instruction. ReadWorks has built decodable resources for teachers to use as supplements to a strong phonics curriculum. The science also shows that students need to build background knowledge and vocabulary while practicing applying their decoding skills. In other words, it’s never too early (and never too late) to build knowledge and vocabulary. If we omit this knowledge-building at early ages, students are behind when they become increasingly automatic with their word recognition skills and move to new stages of comprehension. We provide support for decoding practice and early knowledge-building through our content-rich nonfiction decodables paired with listening-level texts on the same topic. |
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Recent Studies with Research BriefsArticle-A-Day - A nine-week Article-A-Day intervention boosted students’ science knowledge and vocabulary, and those who engaged more in the Book of Knowledge step made even greater gains. Read the research brief to see all the key findings. Download Now
Article-A-Day + Decodables - After a six-week intervention, teachers reported growth in their instructional practices and students' decoding skills and reading confidence. Read the research brief to see all the key findings. Download Now Article-A-Day - There was an emerging trend that the experimental group improved to a greater extent than the control group on both the background knowledge and vocabulary measures, which would indicate the impact of Article-A-Day passages on improving students' knowledge on the topic of animals. Download Now Impact of Differentiated Assignments - Students’ multiple-choice questions correct rate increases as their experience with the assignments get longer. Students progress over time, implying that students benefit from regularly doing ReadWorks question sets. Download Now |
