PALS showed no statistically significant effects on near-transfer and far-transfer reading fluency for first graders¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr2·q3
Currency · newest study 2012 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (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? McMaster et al. (2005) did not find statistically significant effects on Near-Transfer Fluency or Far-Transfer Fluency for first graders; the WWC domain average effect was –0.21 (improvement index –8), not statistically significant and below the substantively-important threshold. → Peer-Assisted Learning/Literacy Strategies 2012
Evidence¶
Peer-Assisted Learning/Literacy Strategies 2012¶
Peer-Assisted Learning/Literacy Strategies. (2012). WWC Intervention Report, Beginning Reading. U.S. Department of Education, What Works Clearinghouse. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/InterventionReport/364
q3 · i? · causal · r2
Fluency findings from the same randomized field trial of 41 first graders in eight schools; the WWC calculated a domain average effect size of –0.21 with an improvement index of –8, described as not statistically significant and not substantively important. No affirmative evidence of effects.
"McMaster et al. (2005) did not find statistically significant effects on the Near-Transfer Fluency and Far-Transfer Fluency outcomes for students in grade 1."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Peer-assisted instruction and small-group instruction by adults have large, robust short-term effect sizes for K-6 struggling students — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
- For first-grade nonresponders, PALS showed no statistically significant effects on seven alphabetics outcomes compared with adult tutoring — related
- For first-grade nonresponders, PALS showed a substantively important negative (but statistically non-significant) effect on reading comprehension versus adult tutoring — related
- PALS shows potentially positive effects on reading fluency for students with learning disabilities, with a substantively important but not statistically significant WWC-calculated effect size of 0.41 in Saenz et al. (2005) — related
- PALS shows potentially positive effects on reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities (average effect size 0.75, not statistically significant) — related
- No individual alphabetics outcome reached statistical significance in the WWC analysis — related
- PALS shows strong evidence of positive effects on first-grade literacy, with an average effect size of +0.23 across three studies — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
pals-fluency-no-significant-effects-first-grade |
title |
PALS showed no statistically significant effects on near-transfer and far-transfer reading fluency for first graders |
description |
PALS showed no statistically significant effects on near-transfer and far-transfer reading fluency for first graders |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2012 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-07 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — peer-assisted-learningliteracy-strategies-2012 |
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