KATE Project Description

Texas A&M University is partnering with WestEd, a non-profit research and development organization, to examine the impact of the Knowledge Acquisition and Transformation Expansion (KATE) program in schools across the United States. Validated through prior research, the KATE strategy has been shown to bolster reading comprehension and performance on standardized assessments in grades 4 through 8. Schools implementing KATE have reported pass rates as high as 100% on state accountability tests. Findings from prior research studies are available under the Research tab and on the What Works Clearinghouse website.

The KATE program will be implemented works at both student and educator levels:

• Students use a self-paced online program called ITSS, where they work through text passages to identify the text structure, generate a summary and make inferences.
• Educators attend a two-day professional development session, complemented by access to the MOOV 360 resource library and coaching throughout the year. Educators then implement the KATE strategy during their reading instruction time.

We are currently seeking districts to participate in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years. The present study is funded by the Education Innovation and Research program at the U.S. Department of Education and will focus on literacy instruction in grades 4 and 5 for all students. If interested, please complete this form or email us at and a member of the research team will reach out to you with more information.