Improving Struggling Readers’ Early Literacy Skills through a Tier 2 Professional Development Program for Rural Classroom Teachers: The Targeted Reading Intervention

Differential Effects of the Targeted Reading Intervention for Students With Low Phonological Awareness and/or Vocabulary

“…In another study, students at risk for reading-related disabilities who had higher fall phonological awareness scores had higher decoding gains when they were in treatment versus control schools (Vernon-Feagans et al, 2012). A recent study reported results for the same students used in the current study, finding that treatment students at risk for reading-related disabilities gained more than control students at risk for reading-related disabilities, with effect sizes ranging from 0.16 to 0.28 (Vernon-Feagans et al, 2018).…”

“…We created a binary dummy variable to represent condition (0 = control , 1 = treatment ). Elsewhere, we reported the treatment main effects of the TRI for the current sample (Vernon-Feagans et al, 2018). In this study, we moderated condition by vocabulary skills and/or phonological awareness skills to determine whether differential treatment effects existed.…”

“…To aid in moderation interpretation, all predictors were grand-mean centered prior to analyses. For our RQ1 (Model 1 in Table 3), we performed two-way moderation analyses to understand if the significant effects of TRI treatment (Vernon-Feagans et al, 2018) had differential impacts for students who scored lowest on fall measures of phonological awareness or vocabulary, after controlling for fall scores and other control variables. For our RQ2 (Model 2 in Table 2), we performed three-way moderation analyses to determine whether the significant effects of TRI treatment had differential impacts for students who scored lowest on fall measures of phonological awareness and vocabulary.…”

“…The focus of the current study was a literacy professional development program, the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI), which trained kindergarten and first grade classroom teachers to differentiate their instruction to promote rapid reading gains for students who struggled with reading. A series of randomized controlled trials studies have shown the TRI to be effective in improving students’ reading skills (Amendum, Vernon-Feagans, & Ginsberg, 2011; Vernon-Feagans, Bratsch-Hines, Varghese, Cutrer, & Garwood, 2018; Vernon-Feagans, Kainz, Hedrick, Ginsberg, & Amendum, 2013) but less is known about the effectiveness of the TRI for students who may be at highest risk of having reading-related disabilities. The current study examined the degree to which the TRI was differentially associated with improved decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension outcomes based on students’ fall scores on measures of phonological awareness and vocabulary, which were each dichotomized to represent highest risk (bottom quartile) and lower risk (top three quartiles).…”

Early Reading Instruction With Embedded Behavioral Supports for Children With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

“…For example, a national study of students who did not graduate high school by the age of 19 years revealed that 88% of them had struggled with reading in their early schooling (Hernandez, 2011). Early intervention for students who struggle to develop proficiency in basic reading skills is considered best practice (Lovett et al, 2017; Vernon-Feagans et al, 2018).…”