Provide more intensive literacy interventions and supports for at-risk students in later grades¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 2 studies (2 associational), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The brief recommends that supports for older early-grade students be scaled up relative to kindergarten supports, because risk status is more persistent in later grades. It states that "Interventions and supports for students in later grades may need to be more intensive than those at earlier grades," citing data showing more grade 3 students at risk stay at risk over the school year. This is an implementable targeting rule for schools and districts using screener data.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Twice-yearly (or more frequent) universal literacy screening to identify students at risk of reading difficulty

Constraints¶

• Based on initial, somewhat limited data from grantee districts only

Target Learners¶

• Students in grades 1–3 identified as at risk on literacy screeners

Target Learning Goals¶

• early literacy benchmark attainment

Claims¶

• Students at later grade levels were more likely to remain at risk across school years than students at earlier grade levels [+W]
• Across school years, students identified as at risk in earlier grades were more likely to get on track by the end of the next grade than students in later grades [+W]
• Kindergarten students showed the largest BOY-to-EOY decline in significant risk identification, dropping 21 percentage points [+W]
• Across grades K–3, the percentage of students below literacy benchmarks decreases more from BOY to EOY in earlier grades than in grade 3 [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Provide early, effective, targeted intensive intervention to disrupt persistent trajectories of reading difficulty
• Focus support early in the school year on students identified as at risk at BOY to get them on track by midyear
• Schools and districts should choose screener benchmarks that match their goals and resources for defining and serving at-risk students

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Lemke, M., Murphy, D., Soo Ping Chow, A., Spencer, H., & Zhang, A. (2023). Supporting students early: Findings from initial analysis of student progress in early literacy in Massachusetts. WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED638614