Upon entering middle school, students within the study district in southeastern Tennessee had low literacy proficiency scores on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) for 3 consecutive years. Middle school administrators implemented a program called Lexile Framework (LF) into the literacy curriculum in 2011 to improve TCAP scores. However, the change in literacy scores had not been examined following the implementation of LF. The purpose of this quasi-experimental research study was to examine the differences in literacy scores on TCAP of students across the years of pre- and post-LF implementation into the curriculum (2009-2011 and 2012-2014). The theoretical framework for this research study was Vygotsky's social development theory used within the LF to create student-centered learning in order for students to construct new knowledge by making connections with their literacy experiences. With a convenience sample of 225 students, a repeated-measure analysis of variance determined if there was a significant change in the archived matched literacy TCAP scores before and after the implementation of LF. The multivariate tests indicated a significant (Wilk's Î? = .21, F (3, 222) = 276.85, p < .01) and linear effect (F (1, 224) = 709.75, p < .01) with partial eta squared (η2 = .76) of LF on literacy TCAP scores of students across the years of pre- and post-LF implementation. Positive social change implications include providing school administrators with research findings to inform district-wide decisions regarding the use of LF in the curricula in their middle schools. Increasing students' literacy TCAP scores may ultimately improve graduation rates for students.

Upon entering middle school, students within the study district in southeastern Tennessee had low literacy proficiency scores on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) for 3 consecutive years. Middle school administrators implemented a program called Lexile Framework (LF) into the literacy curriculum in 2011 to improve TCAP scores. However, the change in literacy scores had not been examined following the implementation of LF. The purpose of this quasi-experimental research study was to examine the differences in literacy scores on TCAP of students across the years of pre- and post-LF implementation into the curriculum (2009-2011 and 2012-2014). The theoretical framework for this research study was Vygotsky’s social development theory used within the LF to create student-centered learning in order for students to construct new knowledge by making connections with their literacy experiences. With a convenience sample of 225 students, a repeated-measure analysis of variance determined if there was a significant change in the archived matched literacy TCAP scores before and after the implementation of LF. The multivariate tests indicated a significant (Wilk’s Λ = .21, F (3, 222) = 276.85, p < .01) and linear effect (F (1, 224) = 709.75, p < .01) with partial eta squared (η2 = .76) of LF on literacy TCAP scores of students across the years of pre- and post-LF implementation. Positive social change implications include providing school administrators with research findings to inform district-wide decisions regarding the use of LF in the curricula in their middle schools. Increasing students’ literacy TCAP scores may ultimately improve graduation rates for students.