Case Study
CRESST’s Evaluation of the Literacy Design Collaborative
The Client
Website
CRESST Services
Results
- LDC had a statistically significant positive impact on middle school students’ English Language Arts (ELA) performance
- LDC fosters collaboration between teachers
- School leadership plays a crucial role in successful implementation of LDC
Student Learning
Middle School Students: CRESST’s studies consistently found that LDC had a statistically significant positive impact on middle school students’ English Language Arts (ELA) performance. The effect sizes varied, with one study reporting an effect size of \( d = 0.15 \) for students receiving LDC instruction in ELA, science, and social studies/history. Another study indicated that middle school students exposed to LDC instruction achieved up to 9.4 months of additional learning compared to their peers. The impact was powerful for students exposed to LDC in multiple content areas.
Elementary School Students: The studies did not find a statistically significant impact at the elementary school level. This lack of effects was attributed to factors such as lower dosage of LDC exposure (as elementary students typically have fewer teachers) and the exclusion of lower-grade elementary students from the analysis due to the absence of standardized assessment data.
Teacher Collaboration and Professional Development
LDC’s framework emphasizes the importance of teacher collaboration through PLCs, where teachers can collaborate on designing and refining LDC modules. Nearly all participating teachers engaged in PLCs, and they reported positive experiences, highlighting the safe space for sharing instructional strategies and improving literacy teaching practices.
Teachers credited LDC with fostering greater collaboration not only within their grade levels and content areas but also across them. The studies found that this collaboration improved teachers’ instructional practices, particularly in engaging students with complex texts and developing standards-aligned writing assignments.
Challenges and Fidelity of Implementation
Despite the positive outcomes, the studies noted significant challenges in achieving implementation fidelity. Variability was observed in PLC attendance, teacher engagement with LDC’s online resources (CoreTools), and the quality of the modules developed. Some schools struggled to meet the program’s expectations for consistent and thorough implementation, with time constraints and competing priorities often cited as barriers.
School leadership played a crucial role in the success of LDC implementation — schools, where administrators were actively engaged and committed resources to the program, saw better outcomes. However, due to these demands, some schools reduced their participation or discontinued the program.
Sustainability
Impact
Publications
- Examining the Effect of an Interdisciplinary Literacy Program on Student Learning
- LDC in Action: Learning Effects in a Large Urban District
- Literacy Design Collaborative 2018–2019 Evaluation Report
- Literacy Design Collaborative 2017–2018 Evaluation Report
- Literacy Design Collaborative 2016-2017 Evaluation Report
- Early Findings in Eighth-Grade History/Social Studies and Science Courses