In preliminary research results, gains in vocabulary and word knowledge among students were statistically significant!

Students went from an average of 46% correct on the vocabulary pretest to 63% correct on the vocabulary post-test.
On the reading comprehension test, student scores improved from 48% correct on the pretest to 55% on the post-test.
EL students demonstrated strong growth as compared to native English speakers.

Read what educators
from San Jose, CA, are saying after piloting
Word Intelligence!

“Word Intelligence forces students to be engaged. They started off thinking, ‘I can’t do this program, there are so many words, these are words I’ve never seen before,’ and by the end, students were using the words in sentences; they were excited by the words. It’s a confidence builder.”

~ Tracy Leathers, 7th and 8th Grade Teacher,
Fischer Middle School

“It pushes the students further than they think they can go, which is good. It sets a high bar.”

~ Mark Leone, 7th Grade Teacher,
Pala Middle School

“. . . the program was very enriching for my students. I felt that it taught them strategies that they could use on their own to decipher words, to learn how to comprehend what they are reading. tI felt they gained a lot of confidence. I saw this especially after this year’s standardized testing . . . the kids felt very competent going in taking the test, and afterwards they said the program helped them a great deal. The program is especially beneficial to our English learners. It’s a fantastic program. Not only are [teachers] enriching the kids, they are also improving their teaching.”

~ Maureen Chassy, 8th Grade Teacher,
Fischer Middle School

“Word Intelligence is one of the best vocabulary programs I have seen!”

~ Shawna Delaney, 7th Grade Teacher,
Pala Middle School

Hear from more of your colleagues about the success they are having with Word Intelligence (formerly known as Content-Rich Vocabulary)

Word Intelligence™

Increase Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, and Test Scores by Engaging Your Struggling Students in Grades 6–9 with Historical Content

Word Intelligence™: Developing Academic and Content Vocabulary is designed to increase struggling students’ vocabulary and improve their background knowledge and reading comprehension.

Aligned with Common Core State Standards related to vocabulary and language, Word Intelligence provides teachers with all the tools they need to explicitly teach struggling students and English learners important academic words, specific content words tied to U.S. and world history, and efficient word-learning strategies to apply to new words as they are encountered.

Word Intelligence is designed to boost the vocabulary and word knowledge of struggling adolescent readers. This content-rich vocabulary program is designed to augment a standard English course for students who are able to decode and read with an adequate level of fluency but lack a rich vocabulary. This lack of vocabulary can, in turn, impact comprehension, causing students to fall behind their peers and struggle with content.

Word Intelligence provides a wealth of resources to teach vocabulary through a combination of explicit teaching of specific academic words and instruction in the use of context clues and morphemic analysis.

Two editions, each appropriate for students in grades 6–9:

World Edition features world history passages
U.S. Edition features American history passages
Each edition introduces students to 450 specific words plus prefixes, suffixes, and roots

Contents of each edition:

13 units: 9 instructional units with a total of 72 instructional lessons, 3 review units,
and a 2-week orientation unit
3-volume set of Teacher Guides
3-volume set of Student Notebooks
Teacher Resources DVD included with each Teacher Guide volume, containing handouts, tests,
and blackline masters for interactive whiteboards or overheads
Quizzes and tests to assess student gains
Intended to be taught for about 100–120 days during the school year for 45–55 minutes per day

Professional development options:

CORE Vocabulary Workshop to teach vocabulary, contextual analysis, morphemic analysis, and
"word consciousness"
CORE Word Intelligence Workshop to prepare teachers for successful program implementation
CORE on-site coaching and support to implement a comprehensive literacy approach

Word Intelligence was developed by CORE (Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.) under the guidance of principal investigator Claude Goldenberg, Ph.D., of Stanford University and evaluated by SRI International.*

For more information about CORE and its professional development services, visit www.corelearn.com.

* The research and development reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grants R305B070688 to California State University, Long Beach, and R305B070016 to Stanford University, "Content-rich vocabulary development to improve reading achievement of struggling adolescent readers." The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.