Implementing reading interventions to support disadvantaged children in England: insights from a process evaluation

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we present insights from the qualitative data collected during a process evaluation of a reading intervention project carried out in primary and secondary schools in West Yorkshire, England.

Commercially available reading interventions, financed by the Strategic School Improvement Fund, were delivered by school staff to disadvantaged pupils over a period of four half-terms, and a team of university-based researchers carried out qualitative interviews with members of school staff in order to discover factors that affect the sustainability of school-based reading interventions after the initial funding period, and identify good practice in planning for and meeting sustainability objectives. The data from the interviews enabled the researchers to compare and contrast the experiences of the staff following the different interventions.

The findings presented in this paper have generated some helpful guidance about the process of implementing reading interventions in schools successfully, and factors such as staff training, fidelity of implementation and organisational context are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Reading interventions
• sustainability
• disadvantaged pupils
• staff perceptions
• process implementation

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our appreciation to everyone involved in the West Yorkshire Project. We are also grateful for the comments of the anonymous referees. The views expressed here are those of the authors alone and may not necessarily reflect those of their employing or funding organisations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.