STAR Tool Kit LogoSkip navigation Welcome to the Student Achievement in Reading Web site
HomeReading resourcesPilot program informationSTAR Toolkit LoginContact the NetworkContact the Network
star imageAbout STAR
Reading Components Evidence-Based Reading Instruction STAR Tool Kit and Training

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

Venn Chart 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.