By Debra Viadero

                  Success for All, one of the most highly praised models for turning around entire schools, got
                  mediocre grades in an independent evaluation of the program conducted by Miami-Dade County
                  school officials.

                  The nation's fourth-largest district began formally using the program in 48 schools four years ago in
                  an effort to improve reading in its worst-performing elementary schools. The program, developed by
                  Johns Hopkins University researchers Robert E. Slavin and Nancy A. Madden, is built around the
                  principle that every student should read skillfully by the end of 3rd grade.

                  Trying to gauge whether the program was working, district researchers examined changes in reading
                  scores from 1996 to 1997 in 18 schools. Of that group, nine schools were using Success for
                  All--three of them in combination with a technology program devised by Computer Curriculum
                  Corp. and three in tandem with a computer program marketed by Jostens Corp.

                  The remaining nine schools, all of which had similar proportions of poor students and non-native
                  English-speakers, were using a variety of methods for teaching reading, including another national
                  program called SRA /Reading Mastery.

                  By the spring of 1997, the researchers found, the reading scores of students in the Success for All
                  schools were no higher than those for the comparison schools. Likewise, students learning to speak
                  English in those schools made no more learning gains than their counterparts elsewhere.

                  "I don't think it's necessarily an indictment of Success for All," said Joe H. Mathos, the district's
                  deputy superintendent for instruction. "It's something we need to keep a close look at."

                  Implementation Questioned

                  The 347,000-student Miami-Dade district adopted Success for All as part of Operation Safety Net, an
                  effort launched by its previous superintendent, Octavio Visiedo. In its peak year of operation, the
                  program cost the district $14.5 million--a price tag that also included equipment for the
                  computer-based programs implemented at the same time. Mr. Mathos said the district would continue
                  to monitor Success for All and other reading efforts for at least two more years.

                  The less-than-stellar results were no surprise to the program's developer. "We've had indications
                  that we were not getting the results that we should have from the program there, and we know pretty
                  well why," Mr. Slavin said last week.

                  One reason, he said, is that the program was poorly implemented at many Miami-Dade schools.
                  Some schools, for example, never received enough tutors. In others, the faculty did not get a chance
                  to vote on whether they wanted the program until it was well under way. The program's design calls
                  for 80 percent of the faculty to buy in to it before it is adopted.

                  Success for All, which is now being used in more than 1,100 schools nationwide, was chosen by
                  Miami-Dade officials because of its successful track record.

                  But the program's success has also begun to attract critics, who note that most of the studies on it
                  were done by Mr. Slavin and his colleagues. Two recent, independent analyses have shown slightly
                  more mixed results.

                  But Success for All is also succeeding in other urban districts that, like Miami, are also trying to
                  implement it on a large scale. Program students in Memphis, Tenn., for example, are outperforming
                  their counterparts in demographically matched schools.