Although we did not formally collect data on the instruction in these classrooms, informal observations suggested similarities and differences in the instruction contexts of the three school.
As noted, the three schools were very similar in student demographics and were in relatively
close geographic proximity. They also received similar guidance from the district regarding their instructional program, especially reading instruction in the primary grades (Lesaux & Crosson, 2005). However, there was less consistency or support for instruction in vocabulary and reading comprehension in the primary or upper elementary grades; the assessment data revealed some significant differences between students at the three schools in performance on measures of reading comprehension, vocabulary, and word reading accuracy.