Four supplemental reading comprehension curricula had no positive impact on fifth-grade students' test scores, with negative impacts in some cases¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r? · q3
Currency · newest study 2009 · checked against its sources 2026-10-08 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? In a large-scale RCT, the four curricula produced no positive impact on student test scores, and in some cases negative impacts. → James-Burdumy 2009

Evidence¶

James-Burdumy 2009¶

James-Burdumy, S., Mansfield, W., Deke, J., Carey, N., Lugo-Gil, J., Hershey, A., Douglas, A., Gersten, R., Newman-Gonchar, R., Dimino, J., Faddis, B., Dole, J. (2009). Effectiveness of Selected Supplemental Reading Comprehension Interventions: Impacts on a First Cohort of Fifth-Grade Students. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/pr-effectiveness-of-selected-supplemental-reading-comprehension-interventions-impacts

q3 · i? · causal · r?

A large-scale randomized control trial of four reading comprehension curricula with fifth-grade students in disadvantaged urban districts. The report states "the curricula had no positive impact on student test scores, and in some cases, had a negative impact." No effect sizes are printed on this page.

"Overall, the curricula had no positive impact on student test scores, and in some cases, had a negative impact."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• After one school year of implementation (first cohort), the curricula produced no statistically significant positive impacts, and four statistically significant negative impacts were observed. — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The four supplemental reading comprehension curricula had no statistically significant impacts on students one year after the end of their implementation (Cohort 1 follow-up in sixth grade). — related
• Reading for Knowledge had a statistically significant negative impact on students' reading comprehension scores in the study's first year — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The evaluation was a large-scale randomized control trial spanning 268 teachers, 6,350 students, 89 schools, 10 districts, and 8 states — related
• Project CRISS, ReadAbout, and Read for Real showed no significant impacts on reading comprehension in the study's first year — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Impacts of the curricula were not statistically significantly larger after schools had one year of experience using them (Cohort 2 fifth graders). — related
• LLI had no impact on secondary students' reading comprehension in the Oakland RCT — related
• In the Torgesen et al. (2006) RCT, SpellRead™ showed indeterminate effects for fifth graders, with no statistically significant or substantively important effects in any domain after six months — related
• The four reading interventions did not improve state assessment (PSSA) scores; for fifth graders they lowered reading and mathematics scores — related
• A national evaluation design was produced to assess supplemental reading comprehension programs for fifth-grade students — related
• A large randomized trial found no statistically significant effects of Project CRISS® on standardized grade 5 comprehension measures (James-Burdumy et al., 2009) — a narrower finding that bears on this claim