Enhanced Core Reading Instruction (ECRI)

Aligned with College and Career Readiness Standards, ECRI is a multi-tiered program featuring a series of teaching routines designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of reading instruction in kindergarten, first and second grade. The program centers on explicit and systematic instruction and relies on teacher models, multiple and varies practice opportunities, and careful review sequences.

  • NCII Rated Convincing Evidence- Granted a rating of “convincing evidence” in the areas of participants, study design, fidelity of implementation, targeted outcome measures and broad outcome measures by the National Center on Intensive Intervention.
  • Significant and Substantive Impact – Rigorous evaluations on ECRI have demonstrated statistically significant and substantive impacts on the reading achievement of at-risk readers in first grade
  • Nationally-Normed Assessment- Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, a testing system better known as DIBELS is a nationally-normed and recognized assessment developed at the University of Oregon. DIBELS scores are predictive of how well students will read by the time they reach third grade.

Professional Development

Professional development for teachers planning on implementing ECRI in the classroom has been identified as a key component to success by the researchers at CTL.

The Institute provides professional learning opportunities for interventionists, teachers, and leadership personnel through engaging workshops supported by a series of workbooks specifically designed for those roles. Once leaders and teachers have been introduced to the new knowledge and skills necessary to implement ECRI in your K-2 classrooms, our certified ECRI Specialists can deliver job-embedded coaching to ensure teachers and students are realizing the full potential of this powerful resource.

Participants: Grades K-2 Administrators, Classroom Teachers, Intervention Teachers
This two-day workshop will present information and research about evidence-based reading instruction, and describe and model how to use instructional routines to enhance the delivery of core reading instruction in a multi-tiered system of Tier 1 and Tier 2 support. Systematic strategies and instructional routines designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of reading instruction in kindergarten and first and second grade will be described and practiced. By the end of this course, participants will understand how and why (a) using instructional routines can enhance current core reading instruction, and (b) how aligning Tier 1 and Tier 2 reading instruction can lead to high student reading outcomes. Topics will include incorporating explicit instructional elements, aligning intervention for at-risk readers with core instruction, using assessment data to inform and refine instruction, and implementing instructional routines that focus on the essential components of beginning reading instruction.
After completing foundational skills training, participants will be able to:

  • Understand how aligning Tier 1 and Tier 2 reading instruction can lead to high student reading outcomes
  • Understand the elements of enhancing core reading instruction
  • Understand the essential components of beginning reading instruction
  • Identify, describe, and demonstrate the explicit instructional elements of reading instruction
  • Understand the instructional components of a Foundational Skills Lesson and be able to describe the order of skills
  • Identify some possible data sources and describe how they may be used for decision-making actions
  • Understand and describe phonemic awareness, sound-spellings, irregular words, decoding regularly-spelled words, advanced word reading, encoding regularly-spelled words, decodable text reading, and fluency in connected text
  • Demonstrate the delivery of instructional routines in the areas of phonemic awareness, sound-spellings, irregular words, decoding regularly-spelled words, advanced word reading, encoding regularly spelled words, decodable text reading, and fluency in connected text
  • Understand how using instructional routines can enhance current core reading instruction.

Our coaching model is a capacity-building support system for teachers as they implement or advance ECRI in their classrooms. These partnerships are characterized by trust, transformational change, and a strengths-based approach. Collaborative conversations serve as the foundation of our model. Individual teachers will derive a stronger sense of their own capacity to succeed, leading to increased collegiality, greater job satisfaction, and improved student learning outcomes. Our approach is designed to leave teachers with the knowledge, tools, and strategies that will enable them to continue to develop professionally long after the partnership ends.
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Materials

Teaching materials apply the teaching routines featured in the professional development books to specific content of certain core reading programs

  • Journeys 2011,
  • Journeys Common Core 2014,
  • Journeys 2017, Reading Street 2011
  • Reading Street Common Core 2013
  • ReadyGEN 2014
  • Wonders 2014 and Wonders 2017

Lessons align directly with the scope and sequence of the core reading programs and enhance their effectiveness through the use of the routines featured in the Enhanced Core Reading Instruction professional development books and strategically selected practice opportunities.
The Tier 1 Foundational Skills Enhancements and Tier 2 Foundational Skills Intervention feature identical 150 ready-to-use, 30-minutes lessons.
The Tier 2 Foundational Skills Intervention lessons are intended to be pre-taught to Tier 2 students in order to increase their success during Tier 1 instruction. The same lessons enhance the delivery of the core program during Tier 1 instruction and are available in the Tier 1 Foundational Skills Enhancements.

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Research

Developed with support from the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, rigorous research studies demonstrate ECRI’s positive impact on reading achievement for at-risk readers. Research on Enhanced Core Reading Instruction was reviewed by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII). The research received a rating of “convincing evidence” in the areas of participants, research design, fidelity of implementation, targeted outcome measures, and broad outcome measures.

Rigorous evaluations have demonstrated statistically significant and substantive impacts on the reading achievement of at-risk readers in first grade (Fien et al., 2014; Smith et al., 2016). In addition, Enhanced Core Reading Instruction has a positive effect on Tier 1 teachers’ quality of explicit instruction and the accuracy of group practice opportunities (Nelson-Walker et al., 2013). Enhanced Core Reading Instruction closes the gap for at-risk readers. First-grade, Tier 2 students receiving Enhanced Core Reading Instruction had statistically significant, accelerated growth for Tier-2, first-grade Enhanced Core Reading Instruction students on measures of word reading, reading comprehension, and a comprehensive measure of reading achievement, compared to Tier 2 students who received un-enhanced core instruction (Baker, Smolkowski, Chaparro, Smith & Fien, 2015).

Nationally Certified ECRI Professional Development Provider

Professional development for teachers planning on implementing ECRI in the classroom has been identified as a key component to success. We provide professional learning opportunities for interventionists, teachers, and leadership personnel through engaging workshops and job-embedded coaching to ensure students are realizing the full potential of this powerful resource

Contact Us