Only the discussion of the Flex vs. Plain phonics trial reports that, for students with full week-6 attendance, Flex showed greater gains than Plain on taught-letter alphabetics, decoding, and word reading; its results report no treatment differences or interactions¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? The authors' discussion states that among students with 100% attendance in week 6 the Flex treatment showed significantly greater gains than Plain on taught-letter alphabetics, decoding, and word reading, but the results section and the abstract report no significant treatment differences or treatment interactions, and no moderation by total attendance. → Vadasy 2023

Evidence¶

Vadasy 2023¶

Vadasy, P. F., & Sanders, E. A. (2023). Cognitive flexibility + phonics intervention effects on reading gains. Reading Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2023.2166636

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Randomized trial of 57 kindergarteners (Flex n = 29, Plain n = 28). The treatment-by-week-6-attendance interaction appears only in the discussion: the results section of the article (ERIC ED625722) reports "No mean treatment differences were observed, nor were any significant treatment interactions apparent (coefficient test ps > .10)" and that treatment differences did not depend on total tutoring attendance, the published abstract reports no significant differences between conditions in growth in decoding, and no week-6 interaction model or statistic is shown. Week 6 attendance was disrupted by Covid-19 school closures. No effect size is printed for the interaction, so this is the authors' reading rather than a reported result.

"we found a consistent interaction between treatment type and week 6 attendance (recalling that the last week of attendance was affected by Covid-19): for students with 100% attendance in week 6, the Flex treatment demonstrated significantly greater gains than Plain on taught-letter alphabetics, decoding, and word reading."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

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

Related Claims¶

• Pretest, attendance, and EB status showed distinct covariate effects on specific literacy outcomes — related
• Embedded cognitive flexibility practice showed no overall advantage over phonics alone on growth in decoding, encoding, or cognitive flexibility — related
• Higher pretest cognitive flexibility predicted greater decoding gains and compensated for lower pretest alphabet knowledge — related
• Higher tutoring attendance rates are associated with greater reading gains — related
• In a rural district's flexible scheduling program, students used only 19 percent of daily flex-time for academic activities — related
• During COVID, a third-grade volume-of-reading strategy showed greater reading growth than a control group without the strategy — related
• No individual alphabetics outcome reached statistical significance in the WWC analysis — related