The evidence base for Waterford Early Reading Program™ is thin: only one of 36 reviewed studies met WWC evidence standards, and extent of evidence was rated small for both domains¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr3·q2
Currency · newest study 2007 · not yet checked against its sources · 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.
q2 i? Of 36 studies reviewed, only Hecht & Close (2002), a quasi-experimental design, met WWC evidence standards with reservations; the remaining 35 did not meet WWC evidence screens, and the extent of evidence was small for alphabetics and comprehension. → What Works Clearinghouse 2007
Evidence¶
What Works Clearinghouse 2007¶
What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education. (2007). WWC Intervention Report: Waterford Early Reading Program™. July 16, 2007. http://www.pearsondigital.com/pdfs/werp/researchsummary-werp.pdf
q2 · i? · review · r3
WWC review of the program's research base. The single qualifying study included 42 intervention students in four schools and 34 comparison students in two schools; the final analysis sample was 76 students. Reasons studies failed screens included no comparison group, historical cohort comparisons, incomparable groups, confounding, and unreported complete data.
"Thirty-six studies reviewed by the WWC investigated the effects of Waterford Early Reading Program ™. One study (Hecht & Close, 2002) was a quasi-experimental design that met WWC evidence standards with reservations. The remaining 35 studies did not meet WWC evidence screens."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- The evidence base for Corrective Reading in grades K–3 is small: one of 25 reviewed studies met WWC standards, and no studies addressed general reading achievement — related
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- No studies meeting WWC standards addressed SSL effects on fluency, comprehension, or general reading achievement, and the extent of alphabetics evidence is small — 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 — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Waterford Early Reading Program™ showed no discernible effects on comprehension, with a small non-significant effect size on vocabulary — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- In the qualifying quasi-experimental study, at-risk Kindergarten students using Waterford Level One for 15-minute daily sessions were matched to comparison students and pretested in fall and posttested in spring — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Alphabetics improvement-index findings for Waterford Early Reading Program™ were inconsistent across outcomes, ranging from –26 to +37 percentile points — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
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Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
werp-evidence-base-single-study |
title |
The evidence base for Waterford Early Reading Program™ is thin: only one of 36 reviewed studies met WWC evidence standards, and extent of evidence was rated small for both domains |
description |
The evidence base for Waterford Early Reading Program™ is thin: only one of 36 reviewed studies met WWC evidence standards, and extent of evidence was rated small for both domains |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2007 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-07 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — what-works-clearinghouse-2007 |
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