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star imageAbout STAR
Reading Components Evidence-Based Reading Instruction STAR Tool Kit and Training National STAR Trainer Certification

The Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) in the U.S. Department of Education is committed to improving the quality of reading instruction in adult education.

To this end, OVAE has launched the National STAR Training Network (NSTN). NSTN helps state leaders, program administrators and classroom teachers deliver evidence-based reading instruction to intermediate-level adult learners.

Reading Components

The four concepts of reading with understanding are: alphabetics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Alphabetics is the process that readers use to identify words. Vocabulary is the body of words whose meanings a person knows and understands. Fluency is the ability to read with efficiency and ease. Finally, comprehension is the process and product of understanding connected text. Proficient readers use skills and background knowledge acquired over a lifetime. Adult learners may have gaps in both skills and general knowledge, and need explicit, systematic instruction in each of four reading components if they are to succeed.

The four components
of reading are:
  • Alphabetics (the process readers use to identify words)
  • Vocabulary (the body of words whose meanings a person knows and understands)
  • Fluency (the ability to read with efficiency and ease)
  • Comprehension (the process and product of understanding text)


Evidence-Based Reading Instruction

Evidence-based reading instruction (EBRI) integrates findings from the best available reading research with practitioner wisdom to inform instructional decisions.

With EBRI, teachers use diagnostic assessment procedures to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of each learner and target reading instruction accordingly.

Teachers that use EBRI help learners improve their skills in each of the four components of reading - alphabetics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension - by explaining new concepts, modeling strategies, and providing feedback when learners practice.

STAR Tool Kit and Training

STAR is a comprehensive Tool Kit and training package built upon evidence-based reading instructional strategies. STAR helps adult education teachers and administrators improve reading outcomes among intermediate-level learners - those learners who read at the fourth to ninth grade levels.

STAR is not a reading curriculum. It is a reading reform initiative that includes professional development, tools, and resources that expand participants' knowledge of effective reading instruction and improves their ability to build local and state systems that support reading improvement.

The STAR Tool Kit and training package was developed by Dr. Mary Beth Curtis (lead author), a reading research expert at Lesley University, and Laura Segal Bercovitz, manager of the Adult Learning Resource Center in Des Plaines, Illinois. Prior to developing the Tool Kit and training package, Dr. Curtis participated on a national panel to identify and evaluate research-based principles for adult reading instruction. Ms. Bercovitz has been working in the field of adult and family literacy since 1985.

National STAR Trainer Certification

National STAR Trainer Certification was designed to support the long term sustainability of STAR implementation by giving states the opportunity to develop trainers to help sustain, expand and ensure the integrity of evidence-based reading instruction. STAR partner states that have completed a full cycle of STAR training and technical assistance have the opportunity to nominate candidates that meet the specified prerequisites to provide STAR training and technical assistance to existing as well as new programs within their state.

Accepted candidates will have one year to complete a series of activities designed to acquire the content knowledge and skills necessary to train and provide technical assistance involved in implementing evidence-based reading instruction. All trainers who enter the certification process will have full access to the STAR Training Plans and Technical Assistance Planning guide and may use them to provide training and technical assistance services within their state during the certification process. Participants who they train during the year long process will also be given access to the STAR Tool Kit. Please see the STAR Trainer Certification Overview [PDF] [Word] for more information on certification.