Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Reading Remediation Program in a Public School Setting

Abstract

This article reports an evaluation of a reading remediation program delivered to 151 high-risk students in a public school setting. Implementation fidelity was assessed by the amount of time each child was exposed to the program. Despite receiving fewer than the recommended hours of instruction, analyses of standard achievement scores indicated significantly greater change than expected in reading comprehension, reading fluency, and word attack skills. Number of individual hours of instruction yielded the most conservative estimates of change across time. Findings are discussed within the context of conducting effectiveness evaluations of educational interventions and the need to monitor implementation fidelity at the individual level to best inform decision making and resource allocation.

KEYWORDS:

• reading remediation intervention
• evaluating effectiveness
• implementation fidelity
• dosage
• public school setting

This article was accepted under the editorialship of Dr. Charles A. Maher.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support to conduct this study through a Grant Agreement from the North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation to RTI International. The reading remediation program tested in this study was developed and delivered by The Hill Center, a private not-for-profit educational institution in Durham, NC, devoted to the needs of children with learning disabilities and their families. RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute.

Notes

^aTotals may not equal 100 due to rounding.

^bType of learning difference for which student was eligible to receive exceptional children services.

^cBecause only 108 students (79%) were identified to receive exceptional children services, only those students are included here.

^dTypically, only students identified to receive exceptional children services take IQ tests; this was not the case for all children participating in this study. In addition, IQ score data are missing for four students identified to receive exceptional children services. Seventy-nine students took the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–3rd Edition (WISC-III), 15 took the Developmental Activities Screening Inventory (DASI), 11 took the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–4th Edition (WISC-IV), and another 6 took the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT). One child took three additional assessments: Cognitive Assessment System (CAS), Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence–Revised (WPPSI-R).