Four supplemental reading comprehension curricula evaluated in a large-scale RCT¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 7 claims (7 for) · 4 studies (4 causal), q3 · 1 of 4 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article evaluates four supplemental reading comprehension curricula: "Project CRISS, ReadAbout, Read for Real, and Reading for Knowledge." These were tested in "a large-scale randomized controlled trial" of their effects on students' reading comprehension, with impacts analyzed across two study years. The curricula serve as the treatments whose year-one and year-two impacts are reported.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Implemented as supplemental reading comprehension curricula within the randomized controlled trial

Constraints¶

• Impacts reported separately for the study's first and second years

Target Learners¶

• K-12 students receiving supplemental reading comprehension instruction

Target Learning Goals¶

• Reading comprehension

Claims¶

• Four supplemental reading comprehension curricula had no positive impact on fifth-grade students' test scores, with negative impacts in some cases [+W]
• After one school year of implementation (first cohort), the curricula produced no statistically significant positive impacts, and four statistically significant negative impacts were observed. [+W]
• Project CRISS, ReadAbout, and Read for Real showed no significant impacts on reading comprehension in the study's first year [+W]
• Reading for Knowledge had a statistically significant negative impact on students' reading comprehension scores in the study's first year [+W]
• ReadAbout had a positive and significant impact in the study's second year among teachers with one year of experience using the intervention [+W]
• 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). [+W]
• A large randomized trial found no statistically significant effects of Project CRISS® on standardized grade 5 comprehension measures (James-Burdumy et al., 2009) [+W]

Related Elements¶

• Four supplemental reading comprehension curricula evaluated in a federal study
• Four supplemental reading comprehension curricula evaluated under real-world conditions

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Susanne James-Burdumy, John Deke, Russell Gersten, Julieta Lugo-Gil, Rebecca Newman-Gonchar, Joseph Dimino, Kelly Haymond, Albert Yung-Hsu Liu. (2012). Effectiveness of Four Supplemental Reading Comprehension Interventions. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, vol. 5, issue 4. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/effectiveness-of-four-supplemental-reading-comprehension-interventions