Examining the Effectiveness of a Multicomponent Reading Comprehension Intervention in Middle Schools: A Focus on Treatment Fidelity

This study examined the efficacy of a supplemental, multicomponent adolescent reading intervention for middle school students who scored below proficient on a state literacy assessment. Using a within-school experimental design, we randomly assigned 483 students in grades 6 to 8 to a business-as-usual control condition or to the Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI), a supplemental reading program involving instruction to support word reading skills, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, and peer talk to promote reading engagement and comprehension. We assessed behavioral engagement by measuring how much of the STARI curriculum activities students completed during an academic school year and we collected intervention teachers' ratings of their students' reading engagement. STARI students outperformed control students on measures of word recognition (d = .20), efficiency of basic reading comprehension (d = .21), and morphological awareness (d = .18). Reading engagement in its behavioral form, as measured by students' participation and involvement in the STARI curriculum, mediated the treatment effects on each of these three posttest outcomes. Intervention teachers' ratings of their students' emotional and cognitive engagement explained unique variance on reading posttests. Findings from this study support the hypothesis that (a) behavioral engagement fosters struggling adolescents' reading growth and (b) teachers' perceptions of their students' emotional and cognitive engagement further contribute to reading competence.Keywords: adolescent literacy, reading intervention, reading engagement, experimental design, ENGAGING ADOLESCENT READERS 3Engaging Struggling Adolescent Readers to Improve Reading SkillsThe roughly one-quarter of U.S. eighth graders who score below basic on national assessments of reading (NCES, 2015) struggle with the reading demands of secondary school.They are challenged by expectations that they summarize textbook passages, use context to determine word meaning, and make text-based inferences. For many adolescents with reading difficulties, gaps in decoding and fluency compromise basic comprehension (Catts, Compton, Tomblin, & Bridges, 2012;Schatschneider, Fletcher, Francis, Carlson, & Foorman, 2004;Verhoeven & van Leeuwe, 2008). As a consequence, adolescent reading interventions often target word-and sentence-level skills in addition to skills related to meaning construction.Despite calls for increased attention to the needs of struggling adolescent readers (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004; Kamil et al., 2008), however, the impacts of existing multicomponent interventions have often been modest, especially when moved to scale in low performing schools and with teacher, rather than researcher, implementation (Edmonds et al., 2009;Scammacca et al., 2007;Solis, Miciak, Vaughn, & Fletcher, 2014;Wanzek et al., 2013).Student motivation and engagement are frequently cited as barriers to the success of adolescent literacy interventions (Kamil et al., 2008;Manset-Williamson & Nelson, 20...

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging Struggling Adolescent Readers to Improve Reading Skills

Kim¹,

Hemphill

Troyer³

et al. 2016

“…Our Methodological Quality Questionnaire (see the Appendix) was adapted from Miller, Scott, and McTigue (2018). We added the criterion of fidelity of implementation because it predicts reading intervention success (e.g., Fogarty et al, 2014). All studies (n = 31) were double-coded at the full-text level, and only those that met all eight quality criteria were included.…”

Section: Methodological Quality Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critically Reviewing GraphoGame Across the World: Recommendations and Cautions for Research and Implementation of Computer‐Assisted Instruction for Word‐Reading Acquisition

McTigue

Solheim

Zimmer

et al. 2019

A B S T R A C TOverall, game-based technology for early reading instruction has not robustly met the learning potentials of young readers. To better understand the effects and limitations of computer-assisted instruction in classrooms, researchers have called for more critical attention to learning theory, methodological selection, and context for learning. GraphoGame (GG), an adaptive serious game designed to prevent reading difficulties through the promotion of soundsymbol connections, has been implemented in over 20 countries. Therefore, the GG research base provides an opportunity to synthesize research on a single computer-assisted instruction across diverse contexts. Surprisingly, despite extensive use and further implementation plans, no review has yet synthesized GG's effects. Specifically, this systematic literature review, with an embedded meta-analysis, synthesized 28 empirical studies for theory, methodological quality, and outcomes. The GG research base was dominated by theories of reading disabilities and psycholinguistics. Methodologically, quantitative methods, focusing on phonological and decoding outcome measures only, were most common. The meta-analysis (n = 19), measuring GG's impact on word-reading outcomes, did not yield an overall meaningful effect size (g = −0.02). However, among moderators (language complexity, duration of intervention, and adult interaction), adult interaction was significant, favoring implementation contexts with high levels of adult interaction. Specifically, studies with high adult interaction produced an average positive effect size (g = 0.48), which suggests implications for classroom use. Regarding future research, the authors recommend stronger clarity of theory, attention to learning context, and a more purposeful collection of process data, which can be obtained through greater plurality of methodology. D espite great potential, the effect of educational technology on classroom learning has overpromised, both in general (

“…A number of intervention studies have documented a positive relation between fidelity of implementation and program outcomes (Durlak & DuPre, 2008;Fogarty et al, 2014;Vaughn et al, 2013Vaughn et al, , 2015. The effects of adaptation on program outcomes and sustainability, however, are less clear.…”

Section: Fidelity and Adaptation: Two Dimensions Of Program Implementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Structured Teacher Adaptations to an Evidence‐Based Summer Literacy Program

Kim¹,

Burkhauser²,

Quinn³

et al. 2017

The authors conducted a cluster‐randomized trial to examine the effectiveness of structured teacher adaptations to the implementation of an evidence‐based summer literacy program that provided students with (a) books matched to their reading level and interests and (b) teacher scaffolding for summer reading in the form of end‐of‐year comprehension lessons and materials sent to students’ homes in the summer months. In this study, 27 high‐poverty elementary schools (75–100% eligibility for free or reduced‐price lunch) were matched by prior reading achievement and poverty level and randomly assigned to one of two implementation conditions: a core treatment condition that directly replicated implementation procedures used in previous experiments, or a core treatment with structured teacher adaptations condition. In the adaptations condition, teachers were organized into grade‐level teams around a practical improvement goal and given structured opportunities to use their knowledge, experience, and local data to extend or modify program components for their students and local contexts. Students in the adaptations condition performed 0.12 standard deviation higher on a reading comprehension posttest than students in the core treatment. An implementation analysis suggests that fidelity to core program components was high in both conditions and that teachers in the adaptations condition primarily made changes that extended or modified program procedures and activities in acceptable ways. Adaptations primarily served to increase the level of family engagement and student engagement with summer books. These results suggest that structured teacher adaptations may enhance rather than diminish the effectiveness of an evidence‐based summer literacy program.