Success for All (SFA) refers to standards-based Comprehensive School Reform curricula for early childhood through middle school, produced by the nonprofit organization Success for All Foundation (SFAF).
Success for All is a reading program that was started in one Baltimore school in 1987 [1]. By September 2000, Success for All served more than 1,800 schools and served about a million children [1]. Baltimore, Memphis, Philadelphia, Miami, Houston, Montgomery, Fort Wayne, Little Rock, Tucson, Riverside and Modesto [1] are some of the school districts who tried the Success for All program. The creators of this program believe that every child should be able to read, unless they have some sort of organic retardation [2]. The goal of the program is to actively seek early elementary students who struggle as readers and to do every possible intervention to improve their reading skills before they get discouraged. Success for All is influenced by the Title I program that believes in preventing failure of any reader by creating successful preschool and kindergarten curriculum for reading. Early intervention means that supplementary instructional services are provided early in students’ schooling and that they are intensive enough to bring at-risk students quickly to a level at which they can profit from high quality classroom instruction [1]
The Success for All program is critiqued in Jonathan Kozol's book, The Shame of the Nation, as excessively dogmatic, utilitarian, and authoritarian.