Colleagues: In a 1987 paper I reported a number of adult literacy programs
that made reading grade level gains in a given number of hours. The best
"program" consisted of giving a two hour reading test to mid-level readers
(around 5th-6th grades), waiting two weeks while they engaged in vocational
training, not reading instruction, and then testing them again with an
alternate form of the reading test. They made 1 grade level gain on the
standardized reading tests.

A program using the PLATO computer based instruction reported 1.8 years gain
in 11 hours. An Air Force program reported 2.3 years gain in 14 hours of
instruction. Another PLATO program reported 1.6 years gain in 15 hours of
instruction. An Army program reported 3 years gain in 41 hours of
instruction.

I am looking forward to reading the technical report from the NCFL study
reporting a year's gain in reading for every 10 or so hours of instruction.
This suggests that in just 60 hours of instruction an adult reading at the
6th grade level could pass a standardized test with scores at the high
school level (the 12th grade). This would imply that some 6,000 new
vocabulary words were added to the adult's functionally useful lexicon and
rate of silent reading of grade-level appropriate material would increase
by 60-70 words per minute.

I have found the web page with the press release about the NCFL study, but I
do not know the web page for the full technical report. I would appreciate
it if someone would post the web address for the full technical report.

Thanks,
Tom Sticht