Parent tutoring, instructional hierarchy, and reading: A case study

Abstract

Parents of three second-grade students identified as at-risk readers were trained to tutor their children. The reading interventions were either accuracy (i.e., modeling and phrase drill) or proficiency (i.e., repeated reading and reward). Intervention selection was based on predicted level of the instructional hierarchy. Students reading below 32 words correct per minute (WCM) or below 85% accuracy were provided with the accuracy intervention. Students exceeding both of these criteria were provided with the proficiency intervention. This study was conducted over 30 weeks of the academic year. Progress monitoring data were collected using DIBELSNext. Parent tutors provided the interventions with high levels of treatment adherence and exposure. Parents were very satisfied with the tutoring experience.

Keywords:

• Instructional hierarchy
• parents
• reading fluency
• treatment integrity
• tutors

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in the study.

Notes on contributors

Joel Erion is Professor of School Psychology and Chair of the Department of Counseling, School Psychology, and Special Education at Edinboro University. Research interests teacher education, parent tutoring, and basic skills instruction.

Jennifer Hardy is a Doctoral Candidate and Intern in Counseling Psychology at the University of Akron. Research interests include hope and suicide, parent tutoring, and social media.

Notes

1 The implementation checklist and parent satisfaction form are available on request from the first author.