This study compared the effects of 2 supplemental interventions on the beginning reading performance of kindergarteners identified as at risk of reading difficulty. Students (N = 206) were assigned randomly at the classroom level either to an explicit/systematic commercial program or to a school-designed practice intervention taught 30 min per day in small groups for approximately 100 sessions. Multilevel hierarchical linear analyses revealed statistically significant effects favoring the explicit/systematic intervention on alphabetic, phonemic, and untimed decoding skills with substantive effect sizes on all measures except word identification and passage comprehension. Group performance did not differ statistically on more advanced reading and spelling skills. Findings support the efficacy of both supplemental interventions and suggest the benefit of the more explicit/systematic intervention for children who are most at risk of reading difficulty.
Publication
Exceptional Children, 77(2), 207–228
Link to study
Year of Study
2011
Subject
Literacy
Program Evaluated
Early Reading Intervention
Tutor Type
Teacher
Duration
1 year
Sample size
206
Grade Level(s)
Kindergarten
Student-Tutor Ratio
3.61
Effect Size
0.31
Study Design
Cluster Randomized
Simmons, D. C., Coyne, M. D., Hagan-Burke, S., Kwok, O.-M., Simmons, L., Johnson, C., Zou, Y., Taylor, A. B., Mcalenney, A. L., Ruby, M., & Crevecoeur, Y. C. (2011). Effects of supplemental reading interventions in authentic contexts: A comparison of kindergarteners’ response. Exceptional Children, 77(2), 207–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440291107700204