The interventions narrowed some reading gaps, reducing the Word Attack gap by about two-thirds for third graders and one-half for fifth graders¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2007 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Relative gap reduction was largest on Word Attack: about two-thirds for the third-grade cohort and one-half for the fifth-grade cohort, with smaller reductions on other word-level tests and comprehension. → 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

Table 4 and Figures 1-12 report relative gap reduction (RGR), defined as the impact divided by the difference between the population average and the control group average at follow-up; the third-grade Word Attack RGR was 0.68. The report states the gap was "reduced... by about two-thirds for students in the third-grade cohort."

"Being in one of the interventions reduced the reading gap in Word Attack skills by about two-thirds for students in the third-grade cohort. On other word-level tests and a measure of reading comprehension, the interventions reduced the gap for students in the third-grade cohort by about one-sixth to one-third."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

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

Related Claims¶

• Failure Free Reading, the only word-level-plus-comprehension program, showed impacts for third graders but no impacts for fifth graders — related
• The four reading interventions did not improve state assessment (PSSA) scores; for fifth graders they lowered reading and mathematics scores — related
• Younger struggling readers benefited more: the interventions generally helped third-grade cohort students more than fifth-grade cohort students — 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
• 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
• During COVID, a third-grade volume-of-reading strategy showed greater reading growth than a control group without the strategy — related
• A struggling fifth-grade reader with ADHD gained one full grade level in reading over six weeks of iPad-mediated tutoring — related