POLICY AND PRACTICE Success for All


Why evaluation is important


Louise Tracey reports the positive fi ndings of a large-scale, national evaluation of Success for All in primary schools, arguing that evaluations of this nature are possible, desirable, and have signifi cant educational implications for both policy and practice


A THIRD OF CHILDREN IN THE UK LIVE IN poverty, and they are less likely to enter school with the emerging language skills necessary for early literacy attainment. Growing political support for evidence- based practice has highlighted literacy programmes because of the importance of early literacy for a child’s later educational attainment. One important development has been government support for synthetic phonics programmes in primary schools. Yet, evidence on effective beginning reading programmes suggests that programmes that do more than teach reading or phonics but


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include innovative teaching practices, such as co-operative learning, are more effective than those that do not. Common sense suggests a more comprehensive approach. However, common sense often confounds us, which is why we need evidence.


Success for All The Success for All (SFA) programme provides a whole-school approach to literacy. In the early years it focuses on systematic teaching of phonemic awareness and synthetic phonics, as well as vocabulary and comprehension. It also uses co-operative


Better: Evidence-based Education winter 2012


learning strategies. It is designed to be adaptive, continuously assessing pupil progress, which enables teachers to meet pupils’ needs, address defi ciencies, and provide opportunities for acceleration if children are doing well. Extensive professional development and school-wide structures (eg, attendance and parent involvement programmes) are also embedded. The programme was launched in the


US in 1987. It was introduced in the UK in 1997, and is now implemented in more than 100 schools. This adaptation of SFA uses language and cultural content appropriate to UK schools and standards. The adapted beginning reading curriculum of SFA is consistent with the standards supported by the Department for Education (DfE), and is aligned with Letters and Sounds (the DfE phonics teaching programme). SFA has been positively evaluated in more than 40 experimental-control comparison


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