CALI shows some evidence of improving oral and reading comprehension skills (d = .125) without opportunity cost to reading gains.¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr?·q3
Currency · newest study 2017 · checked against its sources 2026-10-24 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? CALI participation was associated with modest gains in oral and reading comprehension (d = .125), suggesting no opportunity cost from implementing content instruction during the literacy block. → Dombek 2017
Evidence¶
Dombek 2017¶
Dombek, J., Crowe, E. C., Spencer, M., Tighe, E. L., Coffinger, S., Zargar, E., Wood, T., Petscher, Y., & Connor, C. M. (2017). Acquiring Science and Social Studies Knowledge in Kindergarten Through Fourth Grade: Conceptualization, Design, Implementation, and Efficacy Testing of Content-Area Literacy Instruction (CALI). Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(3), 301-320. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000128
q3 · i? · causal · r?
Abstract reports the RCT found "some evidence of improving oral and reading comprehension skills (d=.125)" — a small effect indicating content-area instruction during the literacy block did not come at the cost of reading gains.
"Results reveal that CALI demonstrates promise as a useable and feasible instructional individualized general education program, and is efficacious in improving social studies (d=2.2) and science (d=2.1) knowledge, with some evidence of improving oral and reading comprehension skills (d=.125)."
Discussion¶
Learner Variables¶
- Academic and Critical Literacy — outcome: instruction changes it
Related Claims¶
- Child Characteristic X Instruction (CXI) interactions in content learning were reduced through iterative design: leveled readers, explicit vocabulary instruction, and passage-comprehension-based flexible grouping eliminated significant CXI effects by the fourth iteration. — related
- CALI significantly improves social studies knowledge (g = 2.27) and science knowledge (g = 2.10) in K-4 students compared to business-as-usual control. — related
- Supplemental first-grade interventions for ELLs improved phonological and word-level skills but not comprehension, with comprehension gains emerging at one-year follow-up — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
cali-comprehension-gains-no-opportunity-cost |
title |
CALI shows some evidence of improving oral and reading comprehension skills (d = .125) without opportunity cost to reading gains. |
description |
CALI shows some evidence of improving oral and reading comprehension skills (d = .125) without opportunity cost to reading gains. |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2017 |
source_checked |
2026-10-24 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-24 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — dombek-2017 |
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