Waterford Early Reading Level One™ shows no discernible effects on preschool children's print knowledge¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3 · i0–i1
Currency · newest study 2007 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i0 Across six print knowledge measures, the intervention showed no statistically significant or substantively important effects versus business-as-usual (domain average effect size 0.16, improvement index +7 percentile points). → What Works Clearinghouse 2007 q3 i1 On one measure, the Get Ready to Read! Screen, the study authors reported a significant difference favoring Waterford (effect size 0.32), but the WWC could not confirm it. → What Works Clearinghouse 2007 (2)

Evidence¶

What Works Clearinghouse 2007¶

What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education. (2007). WWC Intervention Report: Waterford Early Reading Level One™. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/InterventionReport/541

q3 · i0 · causal · r2

WWC analysis of the Fischel et al. randomized controlled trial across six print knowledge measures (19 classrooms/270 children). The domain average effect size was 0.16 (ns) and the average improvement index was +7 percentile points (range –4 to +13).

"Furthermore, the average effect size was neither statistically significant nor large enough to be considered substantively important according to the WWC criteria (that is, at least 0.25)."

What Works Clearinghouse 2007 (2)¶

What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education. (2007). WWC Intervention Report: Waterford Early Reading Level One™. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/InterventionReport/541

q3 · i1 · causal · r2

For the Get Ready to Read! Screen (19 classrooms/268 children), the study authors found significant differences favoring Waterford (effect size 0.32, improvement index +13), but WWC recalculation with clustering correction found it not statistically significant.

"The WWC could not confirm statistically signifi - cant findings for any outcomes in this domain."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Alphabet Knowledge and Print Awareness — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Waterford Early Reading Level One™ shows no discernible effects on preschool children's oral language — related
• Waterford Early Reading Program™ showed no discernible effects on comprehension, with a small non-significant effect size on vocabulary — related
• The WWC rated Waterford Early Reading Program™ as having potentially positive effects on alphabetics, based on a substantively important average effect size with no statistically significant individual outcomes — related
• Waterford Early Reading Level One™ and Let's Begin with the Letter People® produce similar outcomes in oral language and print knowledge — related
• Foundations can serve more people by identifying and supporting effective interventions that are ready to be scaled — related
• A WWC expert panel distilled recent research into seven recommendations for preschool educators on preparing young children for school — related
• Evidence base for Waterford Early Reading Level One™ is small, with no standards-meeting studies in four of six outcome domains — related
• Alphabetics improvement-index findings for Waterford Early Reading Program™ were inconsistent across outcomes, ranging from –26 to +37 percentile points — related
• Educators can more effectively engage with researchers to advance practice by using the What Works Clearinghouse and other sources of research findings as a base — related
• Early Reading First had positive, statistically significant impacts on children's print and letter knowledge — related