Professional development for reading achievement results from the collaborative language and literacy instruction project (CLLIP)

The Collaborative Language and Literacy Instruction Project (CLLIP) is a model of professional development designed to help teachers incorporate research-based practices of literacy instruction, support mastery, and sustained use of these practices through coaching, and serve as a foundation for whole-school reform efforts. We describe the model, intervention, implementation, and subsequent results from an exploratory study in which we tested student literacy outcomes for kinder-gartners and fourth graders in the classrooms of CLLIP teachers against a matched comparison group. Exploratory results from a rural cohort of elementary school teachers suggest support for skill building in the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, fluency, and vocabulary. We discuss outcomes by reflecting on central program features: CLLIP strengthens teachers' content knowledge and ties that knowledge to subject-specific content for students, has extended duration and support, is tied to state standards, and involves collective participation across a district to advance reform efforts.