Research Report: Accelerating Literacy
and Early Literacy Intervention, 1990–1996

 The backbone of both the AL and ELI programs offered by Walker Enterprises is theoretical and applied research. This booklet shares the most important studies upon which the AL model and ELI program were formulated, plus statistical analyses of the programs’ efficacy, assessed district by district, school by school, class by class, and student by student.

Early Literacy Intervention (ELI) and Accelerating Literacy (AL) work in partnership to complement and enhance the literacy development of elementary school students. Introduced to southern California in 1990, both programs have now been used successfully in more than seven-hundred schools in nine states.

The programs have assisted a number of these schools and districts to achieve distinction as outstanding examples in curriculum and instruction. The majority of schools in San Diego County who received the prestigious California Distinguished Schools Award for 1994-95 were implementing AL. Johnson Elementary of Cajon Valley Union Schools in El Cajon California was voted one of the top achieving schools in California for the 1996-97 school year. A successful training-coaching- implementation model is used to help schools realize their literacy goals.

Teachers and administrators who use AL and ELI consistently report that students are more actively engaged in processing print and more motivated to read and write than before they received this special instruction. Across the board, students improve their literacy skills, thinking skills, and test performance.

AL and ELI also boast one of the lowest per teacher and per student cost when compared to competitive programs.

Rena M. Walker, Ph.D.

  Dr. Walker offers teachers practical ways to apply the principles of balanced processing and balanced instruction. As an educational consultant with classroom and administrative experience - from preschool to college level - she is especially suited to communicate these strategies and techniques to her colleagues.
    In 1984, Dr. Walker received her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Her study considered the metacognitive and metalinguistic concepts of students at the conclusion of their elementary school years. Her early classroom teaching experiences were acquired in Ohio, Oklahoma, and California, and her college-level teaching was in Oklahoma and California. She launched a full-time consulting career and organized Walker Enterprises in 1992. She now trains teachers and administrators across the US from coast to coast as well as internationally.