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04/13/2021. Research Study
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of code-oriented supplemental instruction for kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties. Paraeducators were trained to provide 18 weeks of explicit instruction in phonemic skills and the alphabetic code. Students identified by their teachers meeting study eligibility criteria were randomly assigned to 2 groups: individual supplemental instruction and control. Students were pretested in December, midtested, and posttested in May-June of kindergarten. At posttest, treatment students significantly outperformed controls on measures of reading accuracy, reading efficiency, oral reading fluency, and developmental spelling. Treatment students had significantly higher linear growth rates in phonemic awareness and alphabetic knowledge during the kindergarten treatment. At a 1-year follow-up, significant group differences remained in reading accuracy and efficiency. Ethical challenges of longitudinal intervention research are discussed. Findings have policy implications for making supplemental instruction in critical early reading skills available.
04/13/2021. Research Study
Two intervention approaches designed to address the multifaceted academic and cognitive difficulties of low-income children who enter pre-K with very low math knowledge were tested in a randomized experiment. Blocking on classroom, children who met screening criteria were assigned to a Math C Attention condition in which the Pre-Kindergarten Mathematics Tutorial (PKMT) intervention was implemented (4 days/week for 24 weeks) in addition to 16 adaptive attention training sessions, a Math-Only condition using the PKMT intervention, or a business-as-usual condition. Five hundred eighteen children were assessed at pretest and posttest. There was a significant effect of the PKMT intervention on a broad measure of informal mathematical knowledge and a small but significant effect on a measure of numerical knowledge. Attention training was associated with small effects on attention, but did not provide additional benefit for mathematics. A main effect of state on math outcomes was associated with a stronger, numeracy-focused Tier 1 mathematics curriculum in one state. Findings are discussed with respect to increasing intensity of math-specific and domain-general interventions for young children at risk for mathematical learning difficulties.
04/13/2021. Research Study
Describes an after-school tutoring program in which adult volunteers work, one-to-one, with low-achieving 2nd- and 3rd-grade readers. Specific attention is given to (1) the need for such a tutoring effort; (2) the design of the program, including how the tutoring was supervised; (3) an empirical test of the program's effectiveness; and (4) the generalizability of the tutoring concept to other educational settings. Results of a 2-yr study with 30 tutored children and 30 nontutored controls show that the program was successful in helping at-risk primary-grade children learn to read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of fact retrieval tutoring as a function of math difficulty (MD) subtype, that is, whether students have MD alone (MD-only) or have concurrent difficulty with math and reading (MDRD). Third graders (n = 139) at two sites were randomly assigned, blocking by site and MD subtype, to four tutoring conditions: fact retrieval practice, conceptual fact retrieval instruction with practice, procedural computation/estimation instruction, and control (no tutoring). Tutoring occurred for 45 sessions over 15weeks for 15–25 minutes per session. Results provided evidence of an interaction between tutoring condition and MD subtype status for assessment of fact retrieval. For MD-only students, students in both fact retrieval conditions achieved comparably and outperformed MD-only students in the control group as well as those in the procedural computation/estimation instruction group. By contrast, for MDRD students, there were no significant differences among intervention conditions.
04/13/2021. Research Study
A study of 17 first-graders identified at high risk for a reading disability investigated the effects of community tutors on reading performance. When compared to the performance of matched controls, the children performed better on spelling and segmentation but not on reading. Skills declined at the second-grade follow-up evaluation. (CR)
04/13/2021. Research Study
A first-grade reading and language development intervention for English language learners (Spanish/English) at risk for reading difficulties was examined. The intervention was conducted in the same language as students’ core reading instruction (English). Two hundred sixteen firstgrade students from 14 classrooms in 4 schools from 2 districts were screened in both English and Spanish. Forty-eight students (22%) did not pass the screening in both languages and were randomly assigned within schools to an intervention or contrast group; after 7 months, 41 students remained in the study. Intervention groups of 3 to 5 students met daily (50 minutes) and were provided systematic and explicit instruction in oral language and reading by trained bilingual reading intervention teachers. Students assigned to the contrast condition received their school’s existing intervention for struggling readers. Intervention students significantly outperformed contrast students on multiple measures of English letter naming, phonological awareness and other language skills, and reading and academic achievement. Differences were less significant for Spanish measures of these domains, though the strongest effects favoring the intervention students were in the areas of phonological awareness and related reading skills.
04/13/2021. Research Study
The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects on reading achievement of a low-cost, widely implemented volunteer reading program that has been expanding rapidly throughout the state of Oregon. Eighty-four beginning first grade students at risk of reading difficulties were randomly assigned to experimental and comparison groups. Adult volunteers tutored students in the experimental group in 30-minute sessions two times per week in first and second grade. At the end of grades 1 and 2, students were administered a number of standardized reading measures, including measures of individual word reading, reading comprehension, word comprehension, and reading fluency. Analyses revealed that students in the experimental group made greater growth on a word identification measure than students in the comparison condition; they also made more growth than a group of average-achieving students who were from the same classrooms at the students in the experimental and comparison groups. Students in the experimental group also scored higher than students in the comparison condition on measures of reading fluency and word comprehension at the end of second grade. Differences were not statistically significant on passage comprehension. Findings are discussed in the context of the reading achievement effects that other adult volunteer reading programs have attained. We suggest that in establishing adult volunteer reading programs it is important to consider how to balance the intensity of training reading volunteers to achieve measurable impact on reading achievement with real world realities of the volunteer tutoring experience and goals for the extensiveness of implementation. /// [Spanish] El propósito del presente estudio fue evaluar los efectos de un programa de tutorías, de bajo costo y muy difundido que se ha expandido rápidamente en el estado de Oregon, sobre los progresos en lectura. Ochenta y cuatro estudiantes de primer grado considerados en riesgo de fracaso en lectura fueron asignados al azar a grupos experimental y de control. Los voluntarios adultos realizaron tutorías con los estudiantes del grupo experimental en sesiones de 30 minutos, dos veces por semana en primero y segundo grado. Al final de primero y segundo grado se administró a los estudiantes un conjunto de medidas estandarizadas de lectura, que incluían lectura de palabras individuales, comprensión lectora, comprensión de palabras y fluidez en lectura. Los análisis revelaron que los estudiantes del grupo experimental progresaron más que los estudiantes del grupo de control en una medida de identificación de palabras; asimismo progresaron más que un grupo de estudiantes promedio provenientes de las mismas aulas que los estudiantes de los grupos experimental y de control. Los estudiantes del grupo experimental también se desempeñaron mejor que los del grupo de control en medidas de fluidez en lectura y comprensión de palabras al final del segundo grado. En comprensión de textos las diferencias no fueron estadísticamente significativas. Los hallazgos se discuten en el contexto de los efectos en el progreso en lectura obtenidos por otros programas de tutores voluntarios adultos. Sugerimos que al establecer programas de tutorías con voluntarios adultos es importante considerar la forma de equilibrar la intensidad del entrenamiento de los voluntarios para obtener un impacto mensurable en el progreso en lectura con la realidad concreta de la experiencia de las tutorías voluntarias y objetivos para hacer extensiva la implementación. /// [German] Der Sinn der laufenden Studie bestand in der Bewertung der Auswirkungen auf die Leseleistungsverbesserungen aufgrund eines kostensparenden, von freiwilligen Helfern weitläufig angewandten Leseprogrammes, das in schneller Folge überall im US-Staat Oregon verbreitet wurde. Vierundachtzig Schüleranfänger der ersten Klasse mit Risiken von Leseschwierigkeiten wurden wahllos den Experimentier- und Vergleichsgruppen zugeteilt. Erwachsene als freiwillige Helfer gaben den Schülern in der Experimentiergruppe jeweils für 30 Minuten zweimal die Woche Nachhilfeunterricht in den ersten und zweiten Klassen. Am Ende der 1. und 2. Klasse wurde den Schülern eine Anzahl standardisierter Lesebewertungsmaßnahmen auferlegt, einschließlich der Bemessung individueller Lesefertigkeiten von Worten, dem Leseverständnis, dem Wortverständnis, und der flüssigen Lesebeherrschung. Analysen ergaben, daß Schüler in der Experimentiergruppe größere Fortschritte bei der Bemessung der Worterkennung machten als Schüler unter Vergleichskonditionen; auch machten sie mehr Fortschritte als eine Gruppe von Durchschnittsschülern, die aus dem gleichen Klassenraum kamen wie Schüler in den Experimentier- und Vergleichsgruppen. Die Schüler der Experimentiergruppe erzielten auch höhere Noten als Schüler unter den Vergleichsbedingungen bei der Bemessung der Leseflüssigkeit und dem Wortverständnis am Ende der zweiten Klasse. Im Verständnis von Passagen bzw. Absätzen waren solche Differenzen statistisch nicht signifikant. Die Ergebnisse werden im Zusammenhang von Leseleistungseffekten diskutiert, die andere freiwillige Erwachsenenhelfer mit ihren Leseprogrammen erzielt haben. Wir schlagen vor, daß bei der Schaffung von freiwilligen Lesenachhilfeprogrammen durch Erwachsene es wichtig ist zu berücksichtigen, wie die Intensität der Leseschulung freiwilliger Helfer ausgewogen gestaltet wird, um einen meßbaren Einfluß auf die Leseleistung unter wirklichkeitsnahen Bedingungen an Erfahrungen und Zielen von freiwilligen Helfern zur weitgehendsten Verbreitung zu erreichen. /// [French] Cette étude avait pour but d'évaluer les effets sur la réussite en lecture d'un programme de lecture de bénévoles peu coûteux et très répandu qui s'est répandu rapidement dans l'État de l'Orégon. On a réparti au hasard dans des groupes expérimental et contrôle 84 enfants commençant leur première année qui présentaient un risque de difficultés en lecture. Dans le groupe expérimental, des bénévoles ont été tuteurs des élèves pendant des sessions de 30 minutes, deux fois par semaine en première et deuxième année. À la fin de la première et de la deuxième année, on a administré aux élèves plusieurs tests standardisés, comportant des mesures de lecture de mots isolés, de compréhension de lecture, de compréhension de mots, et de lecture courante. Les analyses ont montré que les élèves du groupe expérimental ont mieux réussi que ceux du groupe témoin dans l'identification de mots; ils ont aussi mieux réussi que le groupe témoin en lecture courante et compréhension de mots en fin de seconde année. Les différences en compréhension d'un passage n'ont pas été significatives. On discute ces résultats dans le contexte des effets sur la réussite en lecture qu'atteignent les autres programmes de volontariat des adultes. On suggère que que pour mettre sur pied des programmes de lecture de bénévoles il est important de trouver l'équilibre entre l'intensité de la formation des bénévoles permettant d'avoir un impact mesurable sur la réussite en lecture et les réalités dans le monde réel de l'expérience des tuteurs bénévoles ainsi que les objectifs d'extension de l'implantation.
04/13/2021. Research Study
A total of 46 children in Grades 2 and 3 with low word-level skills were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups that received supplemental phonics-based reading instruction. One group received intervention October through March (21.5 hours), and one group served as a control from October through March and later received intervention March through May (17.5 hours). Paraeducators trained in a standard treatment protocol provided individual instruction for 30 min per day, 4 days per week. At the March posttest, the early treatment (ET; n = 23) group outperformed the controls (late treatment, LT; n = 20) on reading accuracy and passage fluency. Across both groups, second graders outperformed third graders on these same measures. At the 3-month follow-up, the ET group showed no evidence of decline in reading accuracy, passage fluency, or words spelled; however, 3rd-grade ET students had significantly higher spelling skills compared to 2nd graders. The LT group demonstrated significant growth during their intervention in reading accuracy and spelling, but not passage fluency. When we compared the ET and LT groups on their gains per instructional hour, we found that the ET group made significantly greater gains than the LT group across all 3 measures. The results support the value of paraeducator-supplemented reading instruction for students below grade level in word identification and reading fluency.
04/13/2021. Research Study
This article describes a two-year study addressing the effectiveness of a highly structured, systematic tutoring intervention implemented by minimally trained college students with two cohorts of at-risk first-grade readers. Participants were 61 first-grade children in Cohort 1 and 76 first-grade children in Cohort 2. Tutors participated in three one-hour training sessions and received occasional on-site assistance. Individual tutoring sessions were scheduled for three to four times each week for one school year, with each cohort receiving approximately 10-14 hours of instruction across 44 sessions. The curriculum included a game to teach phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondence, structured word-study activities, reading of leveled books, and simple comprehension strategies. Significant differences were found on measures of phonemic awareness and nonsense word reading for both cohorts. For Cohort 1, but not Cohort 2, significant differences were also detected for real-word identification. Our results support using tutors to provide additional assistance and instruction in early reading, even when tutors are not professionally trained teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
38 children identified for Chapter I compensatory education programs were randomly assigned to an experimental program in which mothers were trained in structured tutoring techniques and 38 to a control group. Children assessed on 2 standardized reading tests (the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills) showed significant differences after 6 mo, but these differences later disappeared. When analyses were limited to those pairs of children in which the parent of the experimental group child had participated more completely in the tutoring program, there were both immediate and long-term significant differences between the groups. It is concluded that parent tutoring programs can be an effective supplement to compensatory education programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
This article provides a synthesis of research in which parents provided academic instruction to their own children. The effectiveness of parent tutoring in 37 studies was examined across grade level, basic skill area (e.g., reading, math), training feature (e.g., treatment length, availability of consultation), treatment fidelity, type of assessment (i.e. criterion-referenced or norm-referenced), and whether or not the study was published. Thirty-two comparisons were found for 20 group design studies and 25 comparisons were found for 17 single subject design studies. Separate analyses were conducted for group design and single-subject design studies using standardized mean difference between experimental and control groups, and percentage of non-overlapping data (PND), respectively. Effect size (ES) and PND were generally positive across both types of studies. A mean weighted ES of +0.55 was obtained for trimmed group design studies and a median PND of 94 was obtained for the single subject studies. Most studies involved reading and the use of primary grade students as subjects. Certain treatment characteristics appeared to moderate outcome. Implications of the current analysis for future practice and research in the area of parent tutoring are discussed.
04/13/2021. Research Study
This randomized controlled trial focused on 59 struggling readers in the third and fourth grades (30 female, 29 male) and examined the efficacy of an intervention aimed at increasing students’ multisyllabic word reading (MWR). The study also explored the relative effects of an embedded motivational beliefs (MB) training component. Struggling readers were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: MWR only, MWR with an MB component (MWR + MB), or business-as-usual control. Students were tutored in small groups in 24 sessions, three 40-minute lessons each week. Students in both MWR groups outperformed the control group on measures of word-reading fluency. MWR + MB students outperformed MWR only on sentence-level comprehension and outperformed the control group in ratings of attributions for success in reading. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance to MWR instruction for students with persistent reading difficulties and the potential for enhancing intervention through targeting motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
This study used a randomized controlled trial design to investigate the ROOTS curriculum, a 50-lesson kindergarten mathematics intervention. Ten ROOTS-eligible students per classroom (n = 60) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a ROOTS five-student group, a ROOTS two-student group, and a no-treatment control group. Two primary research questions were investigated as part of this study: What was the overall impact of the treatment (the ROOTS intervention) as compared with the control (business as usual)? Was there a differential impact on student outcomes between the two treatment conditions (two- vs. five-student group)? Initial analyses for the first research question indicated a significant impact on three outcomes and positive but nonsignificant impacts on three additional measures. Results for the second research question, comparing the two- and five-student groups, indicated negligible and nonsignificant differences. Implications for practice are discussed.
04/13/2021. Research Study
The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of a tutoring intervention provided by community tutors to kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties. The 73 students were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) tutoring 4 days a week, (b) tutoring 2 days a week, or (c) a control condition that provided small-group storybook reading 2 days a week. Children were administered reading and phonemic awareness pre- and posttreatment tests. Analyses revealed that students in the 4-day condition outperformed students in either the 2-day or control conditions on 3 reading measures. Effect sizes were .79, .90, and .83 on word identification, passage comprehension, and basic reading skills, respectively. Challenges and implications for managing community tutoring programs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
THIS STUDY investigated the effectiveness of combining enhanced classroom instruction and intense supplemental intervention for scriiggling readers in first grade, Further, it compared two supplemental interventions derived from distiiia theoretical orientations, examining them in terms of effects on academic outcomes and whether children's, characteristics were differentially related to an instructional intervention. One intervention (Proactive Reading) was aligned with behavioral theory and was derived from the mtxlel ot Direct Instruaion. The other intervention (Responsive Reading) was aligned with a cognitive theory and was derived from a cognitive-appretiticfship model. These interventions were provided to small groups of first-grade students at risk for reading difficulties. Students were assessed on various reading and reading-related measures associated with success in beginning reading. Results indicated that (a) first-grade students who were at risk for reading lailure and who received supplemental instruction in the Responsive or Proactive interventions scored higher on tneastires of reading and reading-related skills than students who received only enhanced classroom instruction, (b) enhanced classroom instruction appeared ro promote high levels of reading growth for many children at risk fot reading failure, (c) the two interventions were essentially equally effective even though they reflected different theoretical perspectives, and (d) children's characteristics did not differentially predict the eflecriveness of an intervention
04/13/2021. Research Study
A paired reading program was implemented for 195 Hong Kong preschoolers (mean age = 4.7 years) and their parents from families with a wide range of family income. The preschoolers were randomly assigned to experimental or waitlist control groups. The parents in the experimental group received 12 sessions of school-based training on paired reading in seven weeks. They were required to do paired reading with their children for at least four times in each of these seven weeks. At the end of the program, the preschoolers in the experimental group had better performance in word recognition and reading fluency than their counterparts in the control group. They were also reported as more competent and motivated in reading by their parents. More importantly, the program had many favorable effects on parents. Parents in the experimental group had higher self-efficacy in helping their children to be better readers and learners. They also reported that they had better relationships with their children. Their changes in relationships and self-efficacy were found to mediate the program impact on some of the child outcomes. However, family income did not moderate the effectiveness of the program. Families with high and low income both benefited from the program alike.
04/13/2021. Research Study
This randomized controlled trial focused on 59 struggling readers in the third and fourth grades (30 female, 29 male) and examined the efficacy of an intervention aimed at increasing students’ multisyllabic word reading (MWR). The study also explored the relative effects of an embedded motivational beliefs (MB) training component. Struggling readers were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: MWR only, MWR with an MB component (MWR + MB), or business-as-usual control. Students were tutored in small groups in 24 sessions, three 40-minute lessons each week. Students in both MWR groups outperformed the control group on measures of word-reading fluency. MWR + MB students outperformed MWR only on sentence-level comprehension and outperformed the control group in ratings of attributions for success in reading. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance to MWR instruction for students with persistent reading difficulties and the potential for enhancing intervention through targeting motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
Mathematics Recovery (MR) is designed to identify first graders who are struggling in mathematics and provide them with intensive one-to-one tutoring. We report findings from a 2-year evaluation of MR conducted in 20 elementary schools across five districts in two states. The design allowed for the estimation of the counterfactual growth trajectory based on those students randomly assigned either to a tutoring cohort with a delayed start or to a wait list. Results demonstrate strong end of first grade effects on a diagnostic measure developed by MR and weak to moderate effects (effect size, .15–.30) on measures administered by external evaluators. By the end of second grade, no significant effects were found on any measures. Practical and research implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
Two studies—one quasi-experimental and one randomized experiment—were designed to evaluate the effectiveness of supplemental instruction in structural analysis and oral reading practice for second- and third-grade students with below-average word reading skills. Individual instruction was provided by trained paraeducators in single- and multiletter phoneme—grapheme correspondences; structural analysis of inflected, affixed, and multi-syllable words; exception word reading; and scaffolded oral reading practice. Both studies revealed short-term word level and fluency effects.
04/13/2021. Research Study
Minnesota Reading Corps (MRC) is the largest AmeriCorps State program in the country. The goal of MRC is to ensure that students become successful readers and meet reading proficiency targets by the end of the third grade. To meet this goal, the MRC program, and its host organization, ServeMinnesota Action Network, recruit, train, place and monitor AmeriCorps members to implement research-based literacy enrichment activities and interventions for at-risk Kindergarten through third grade (K-3) students and preschool children. Starting in 2011, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) sponsored a randomized controlled trial (RCT) impact evaluation of over 1,300 K-3 students at 23 participating schools who were determined to be eligible for the MRC program during the 2012-2013 school year. The goal of the impact evaluation was to determine both the short- and long-term impacts of the MRC program on elementary students’ literacy outcomes
04/13/2021. Research Study
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 1st-grade number knowledge tutoring with contrasting forms of practice. Tutoring occurred 3 times per week for 16 weeks. In each 30-min session, the major emphasis (25 min) was number knowledge; the other 5 min provided practice in 1 of 2 forms. Nonspeeded practice reinforced relations and principles addressed in number knowledge tutoring. Speeded practice promoted quick responding and use of efficient counting procedures to generate many correct responses. At-risk students were randomly assigned to number knowledge tutoring with speeded practice (n = 195), number knowledge tutoring with nonspeeded practice (n = 190), and control (no tutoring, n = 206). Each tutoring condition produced stronger learning than control on all 4 mathematics outcomes. Speeded practice produced stronger learning than nonspeeded practice on arithmetic and 2-digit calculations, but effects were comparable on number knowledge and word problems. Effects of both practice conditions on arithmetic were partially mediated by increased reliance on retrieval, but only speeded practice helped at-risk children compensate for weak reasoning ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
Students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as operational instead of relational. Research indicates misinterpretation of the equal sign occurs because students receive relatively little exposure to equations that promote relational understanding of the equal sign. No study, however, has examined effects of nonstandard equations on the equation solving and equal-sign understanding of students with mathematics difficulty (MD). In the present study, second-grade students with MD (n = 51) were randomly assigned to standard equations tutoring, combined tutoring (standard and nonstandard equations), and no-tutoring control. Combined tutoring students demonstrated greater gains on equation-solving assessments and equal-sign tasks compared to the other two conditions. Standard tutoring students demonstrated improved skill on equation solving over control students, but combined tutoring students’ performance gains were significantly larger. Results indicate that exposure to and practice with nonstandard equations positively influence student understanding of the equal sign. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
This study examined the efficacy of a paraprofessionalled supplemental early intervention for first-grade students with poor early literacy skills and behavioral concerns. The goal was to determine if (a) the relatively brief intervention was effective in improving phonological skills, and (b) improvements in academic skills would be accompanied by behavioral and social improvements. The results indicated that the students in the treatment condition experienced significant, lasting increases in phonological awareness and moderate improvement in word attack skills. However, significant collateral effects on social and behavioral performance were not observed. Limitations and directions for future investigation are offered.
04/13/2021. Research Study
This study examined the efficacy of preventive 1st-grade tutoring in mathematics, estimated the prevalence and severity of mathematics disability, and explored pretreatment cognitive characteristics associated with mathematics development. Participants were 564 first graders, 127 of whom were designated at risk (AR) for mathematics difficulty and randomly assigned to tutoring or control conditions. Before treatment, all participants were assessed on cognitive and academic measures. Tutoring occurred 3 times weekly for 16 weeks; treatment fidelity was documented; and math outcomes were assessed. Tutoring efficacy was supported on computation and concepts/applications, but not on fact fluency. Tutoring decreased the prevalence of math disability, with prevalence and severity varying as a function of identification method and math domain. Attention accounted for unique variance in predicting each aspect of end-of-year math performance. Other predictors, depending on the aspect of math performance, were nonverbal problem solving, working memory, and phonological processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
04/13/2021. Research Study
We examined the efficacy of 20 weeks of individual supplemental phonics-based instruction for language minority (LM) and non-LM first graders. Students were designated LM if the primary home language was not English (otherwise non-LM). Those performing in the bottom half of their classroom LM/non-LM group in letter knowledge and phonological awareness were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. Treatment included alphabetics, decoding, and oral reading practice. Results showed that treatment students (n = 93) outperformed controls (n = 94) on 5 of the 6 posttests; however, LM students exhibited lower treatment response on passage reading fluency. Pretest word reading did not moderate treatment response, and LM students with greater baseline vocabulary showed greater treatment response on posttest word reading and spelling
04/13/2021. Research Study
Replication studies are extremely rare in education. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) is a scale-up replication of Fuchs et al., which in a sample of 139 found a statistically significant positive impact for Number Rockets, a small-group intervention for at-risk first graders that focused on building understanding of number operations. The study was relatively small scale (one site) and highly controlled. This replication was implemented at a much larger scale—in 76 schools in four urban districts; 994 at-risk students participated. Intervention students participated in approximately 30 hours of small-group work in addition to classroom instruction; control students received typical instruction and whatever assistance the teacher would normally provide. Intervention students showed significantly superior performance on a broad measure of mathematics proficiency.
04/13/2021. Research Study
We evaluated the effects of TutorBright tutoring on the reading and mathematics skills of children in family foster care, examined several potential moderators of the impact of tutoring, and explored possible ‘spill-over’ effects on the children’s executive functioning and behavioural difficulties and on their caregivers’ level of involvement in schoolwork in the home. The sample consisted of 70 children in care in Ontario, Canada. At the pre-test, the children were aged 5–16 years (M = 10.41, SD = 2.94) and enrolled in school grades 1–11 (M = 5.53, SD = 2.90). Thirty-four children were randomly assigned to tutoring and 36 to a waiting list control condition. Seven subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III) achievement test served as outcome measures. The tutored children made statistically greater gains than those in the control group on the WJ-III subtests of Reading Fluency, Reading Comprehension, and Mathematics Calculation, but not on Word Reading, Spelling, Math Fluency, or Applied Math Problems. Age, executive functioning, caregiver controlling involvement in schoolwork, and self-reported post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms were found to moderate the effectiveness of tutoring. There were no spill-over effects of tutoring. The implications of the results for improving foster children’s reading and mathematics skills were discussed.
04/13/2021. Research Study
Children living in foster care are a particularly vulnerable group of children that are at high-risk for experiencing a multitude of difficulties, including poor academic performance and achievement. Although the academic underachievement of foster children has been well-documented for decades, very few attempts have been made to address the problem. This thesis is the second study to come out of the RESPs for Kids in Care research project, which represents one of three known randomized controlled trials aimed at providing an academic intervention to foster children with a view of improving their basic skills, increasing their chances of graduating from high school and enrolling in post-secondary education. Sixty-four foster children (aged 6 to 13 years), recruited from nine Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario, Canada, participated in the project and received an individualized direct-instruction tutoring intervention that was delivered by their foster parent(s). The unique contribution of the current study was its investigation of differential gender effects of the tutoring amongst the foster boys and girls, and whether there were any mental health and social-relational spillover effects. A mixed-method approach was used to explore these differential effects and the main hypothesis of the project, that the foster children in the experimental group would demonstrate greater gains in reading and math than the children in the control group, between pre-test and post-test, regardless of gender. The results were promising: the foster children in the experimental group demonstrated significant gains in their basic reading and math skills after receiving the foster-parent delivered one-on-one tutoring; there were differential gender effects across the academic and mental health results; and there was partial support for the notion that an academic tutoring intervention does elicit spill-over effects into the mental health and social-developmental domains of foster children’s lives. Results and implications were discussed.
04/13/2021. Research Study
The consistently poor educational achievement of children in foster care has been associated with many negative outcomes including long term poor adult adjustment (e.g., higher rates of suicide, criminality, and substance abuse). The current study was undertaken to improve foster children's academic skills through academic remediation. Across this two year randomized study, 91 children in out of home foster or kinship care, between grades 1 and 8 inclusive, completed the study. One-half were randomly assigned to the 30-week direct-instruction small group tutoring condition, while the other half served as wait-list controls. A statistically significant increase in standard scores was found on reading decoding, spelling and mathematic skills for the children who received tutoring, but no differences were obtained on sentence comprehension. Significant effect sizes, in the small to moderate range, were also found in support of the tutoring condition across these three domains. The implications of these positive findings as they relate to improving educational achievement among children in foster care are discussed.
04/13/2021. Research Study
The purposes of this study were to replicate previous research on phonics-based tutoring in kindergarten and to compare treatment effects for students who received individual instruction compared to instruction in dyads. Thirty classroom teachers from 13 urban elementary schools referred at-risk students for participation. Students who met screening criteria were quasi-randomly assigned, within classroom, to one of three conditions: individual tutoring (n = 22), tutoring in dyads (n = 32), or no tutoring (n = 22, classroom instruction only). Twenty-one paraeducators provided 18 weeks of explicit instruction in phonemic skills and the alphabetic code to students during the latter half of kindergarten. Multilevel model results showed that tutored students outperformed non-tutored controls on posttest measures of phonological awareness, word reading accuracy, oral reading fluency, spelling, and comprehension. However, no significant differences were found between the two tutored groups on any measure, suggesting that code-oriented tutoring for pairs of students is a viable alternative to the gold standard of individual instruction.