RMC Arlington is currently conducting evaluations of three US Department of Education-funded Striving Readers projects, a program sponsored jointly by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Institute for Education Sciences. The Striving Readers program funds supplemental reading interventions aimed at raising middle and high school students' literacy levels in Title I-eligible schools with significant numbers of students reading below grade-levels. The awarded projects are required to conduct randomized controlled trials (RCT) to assess the impact of adolescent reading interventions on students' academic performance measured through standardized tests.

RMC is conducting evaluations of the Illinois and Virginia Striving Readers projects, two of the seven awardees in the program's Cohort II. RMC is also part of the evaluation of the Memphis (Tennessee) Striving Readers project, a Cohort I grantee, working with Research for Better Schools. According to Sonia Jurich, Project Director for the Illinois and Virginia evaluations, "The evaluation of the Striving Readers program is a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the development of a strong, scientific research base for identifying and replicating strategies that improve adolescent literacy skills. We are pleased to support the US Department of Education and our clients in this endeavor."