Failure Free Reading, the only word-level-plus-comprehension program, showed impacts for third graders but no impacts for fifth graders¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2007 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Failure Free Reading had impacts on one measure of phonemic decoding, two of three accuracy/fluency measures, and one comprehension measure for third graders, but no impacts for fifth graders. → Torgesen 2007

Evidence¶

Torgesen 2007¶

Torgesen, J., Schirm, A., Castner, L., Vartivarian, S., Mansfield, W., Myers, D., Stancavage, F., Durno, D., Javorsky, R., and Haan, C. (2007). National Assessment of Title I, Final Report: Volume II: Closing the Reading Gap, Findings from a Randomized Trial of Four Reading Interventions for Striving Readers (NCEE 2008-4013). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/national-assessment-of-title-i-final-report-volume-ii-closing-the-reading-gap-findings-from-a-randomized-trial-of-four-reading-interventions-for-striving-readers

q3 · i? · causal · r3

In the randomized trial's individual-intervention estimates (Table 2), Failure Free Reading showed statistically significant third-grade impacts (e.g., Word Attack impact 4.9) and none for the fifth-grade cohort. The report identifies it as "the only word level plus comprehension program."

"For students in the third-grade cohort, Failure Free Reading (the only word level plus comprehension program) had impacts on one measure of phonemic decoding, two of the three measures of word reading accuracy and fluency, and one measure of comprehension. However, this intervention did not have any impacts for students in the fifth-grade cohort."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Age and Developmental Stage — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it

Related Claims¶

• Four remedial reading interventions combined improved phonemic decoding, word reading accuracy and fluency, and reading comprehension for third-grade struggling readers one year after the interventions ended, though not on all measures — related
• The interventions narrowed some reading gaps, reducing the Word Attack gap by about two-thirds for third graders and one-half for fifth graders — related
• For fifth-grade struggling readers, the four interventions combined improved phonemic decoding on one measure but produced a small reduction in oral reading fluency one year after the interventions — related
• The four reading interventions did not improve state assessment (PSSA) scores; for fifth graders they lowered reading and mathematics scores — related
• The Power4Kids evaluation covered four widely used reading programs for elementary students with reading problems: Corrective Reading, Failure Free Reading, Spell Read P.A.T., and Wilson Reading — related
• Younger struggling readers benefited more: the interventions generally helped third-grade cohort students more than fifth-grade cohort students — a broader claim this one bears on
• Reading Recovery targets first-graders in the lowest 20-30% of their cohort after one year of formal schooling — related
• The four Power4Kids interventions delivered about 100 hours of pull-out instruction in small groups of three students over one school year — related
• A struggling fifth-grade reader with ADHD gained one full grade level in reading over six weeks of iPad-mediated tutoring — related
• The Power4Kids first-year report presents impacts on reading achievement at the end of the intervention year, with nearly 800 children in the study — a broader claim this one bears on
• Younger children have difficulty extracting the abstract theme of a narrative text — related