Among all the commercial "learning systems" on the market today, how many are advertised as "research-based?" Perhaps it would be easier to count those that are not. Such claims are so widespread that they are seldom taken seriously by experienced educators. At times, however, marketing becomes clever enough to cut through the skepticism. The more extravagant the promises, it seems, the more credible the product becomes. This book tells the story of one such case: the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, or SIOP.(r)

Imagine a program developed by an obscure research center. SIOP...