Evaluating the Efficacy of Remediation for Struggling Readers in High School

Preliminary efficacy data are reported for a research-based reading intervention designed for struggling readers in high school. PHAST PACES teaches (a) word identification strategies, (b) knowledge of text structures, and (c) reading comprehension strategies. In a quasi-experimental design, 268 intervention and 83 waiting list control students meeting criteria for reading disability were assessed before and after their semester. After 60 to 70 hours of PHAST PACES instruction, struggling readers demonstrated significant gains on standardized tests of word attack, word reading, and passage comprehension and on experimental measures of letter–sound knowledge and multisyllabic word identification relative to control students. An average effect size of .68 was revealed across these outcome measures. One year follow-up data on 197 PHAST PACES students revealed an average trend to decelerated growth after the intervention, except for passage comprehension outcomes that demonstrated continued growth over follow-up.

[1]  J. Beitchman,et al.  Substance Use Disorders in Young Adults With and Without LD , 2001, Journal of learning disabilities.

[2]  Cathy Collins Block,et al.  Comprehension Instruction: Research-Based Best Practices , 2001 .

[3]  Laurice M. Joseph,et al.  Should Adolescents Go Back to the Basics? , 2009 .

[4]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension-Monitoring Activities , 1984 .

[5]  Jack M. Fletcher,et al.  The Role of Instruction in Learning To Read: Preventing Reading Failure in At-Risk Children. , 1998 .

[6]  Jan C. Frijters,et al.  Interventions for Reading Difficulties , 2008, Journal of learning disabilities.

[7]  Jan C. Frijters,et al.  Multiple-Component Remediation for Developmental Reading Disabilities , 2012, Journal of learning disabilities.

[8]  S. Brady,et al.  The inadequacy of individual educational program (IEP) goals for high school students with word-level reading difficulties , 2005, Annals of dyslexia.

[9]  Lynn S. Fuchs,et al.  Effects of Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies on High School Students with Serious Reading Problems , 1999 .

[10]  Charles Hulme,et al.  Reading and Spelling : Development and Disorders , 1998 .

[11]  Edward R. Sipay,et al.  Cognitive profiles of difficult-to-remediate and readily remediated poor readers : Early intervention as a vehicle for distinguishing between cognitive and experiential deficits as basic causes of specific Reading disability , 1996 .

[12]  Kenneth A. Kavale,et al.  Mega-Analysis of Meta-Analyses , 1997 .

[13]  Mark S. Seidenberg,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST HOW PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE INFORMS THE TEACHING OF READING , 2022 .

[14]  Helen Apthorp,et al.  Using Strategy Instruction to Help Struggling High Schoolers Understand What They Read. Issues and Answers. Rel 2007-No. 038. , 2007 .

[15]  M. Mastropieri,et al.  Reading Comprehension Instruction: Summarization and Self-Monitoring Training for Students with Learning Disabilities , 1991, Exceptional children.

[16]  S. Raudenbush,et al.  Application of Hierarchical Linear Models to Assessing Change , 1987 .

[17]  D. Langenberg.  Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction , 2000 .

[18]  M. Bruck.  Persistence of dyslexics' phonological awareness deficits. , 1992 .

[19]  Jan C. Frijters,et al.  Psychometric Stability of Nationally Normed and Experimental Decoding and Related Measures in Children with Reading Disability , 2002, Journal of learning disabilities.

[20]  Jan C. Frijters,et al.  Preparing Teachers to Remediate Reading Disabilities in High School: What Is Needed for Effective Professional Development?. , 2008 .

[21]  Sharon Vaughn,et al.  Fluency and Comprehension Interventions for Third-Grade Students , 2000 .

[22]  Michael Pressley,et al.  Strategies That Improve Children's Memory and Comprehension of Text , 1989, The Elementary School Journal.

[23]  M. Bruck.  Outcomes of adults with childhood histories of dyslexia , 1998 .

[24]  Michael Pressley,et al.  Skilled comprehension and its development through instruction. , 1997 .

[25]  Stephen L. Wasby,et al.  On Preparing Teachers , 1971, PS: Political Science & Politics.

[26]  David N. Rapp,et al.  Higher-Order Comprehension Processes in Struggling Readers: A Perspective for Research and Intervention , 2007 .

[27]  Linda S. Siegel,et al.  The Development of Reading Skills in Children With English as a Second Language , 2007 .

[28]  R. Snow,et al.  Lecture 2: Toward a Theory of Cognitive Aptitude for Learning from Instruction , 1984 .

[29]  M. Lovett,et al.  Putting Struggling Readers on the PHAST Track , 2000, Journal of learning disabilities.

[30]  B. Foorman,et al.  Conditions for Sustaining Research-Based Practices in Early Reading Instruction , 2004 .

[31]  R. Woodcock.  Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised , 1987 .

[32]  J. Keenan,et al.  Reading Comprehension Tests Vary in the Skills They Assess: Differential Dependence on Decoding and Oral Comprehension , 2008 .

[33]  M. Lovett.  Treating the Core Deficits of Developmental Dyslexia: Evidence of Transfer of Learning after Phonologically- and Strategy-Based Reading Training Programs. , 1994 .

[34]  G. Montigny.  Adult Literacy in Canada: Results of a National Study. , 1991 .

[35]  Maureen W. Lovett,et al.  The Effectiveness of Remedial Programs for Reading Disabled Children of Different Ages: Does the Benefit Decrease for Older Children? , 1997 .

[36]  Jan C. Frijters,et al.  Remediating the Core Deficits of Developmental Reading Disability , 2000, Journal of learning disabilities.

[37]  Peter G. Cole,et al.  Comprehension Monitoring: Detection and Identification of Text Inconsistencies by LD and Normal Students , 1987 .

[38]  S. Vaughn,et al.  Interventions for Adolescent Struggling Readers: A Meta-Analysis with Implications for Practice. , 2007 .

[39]  Jonathan M. Campbell,et al.  Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test , 2010 .

[40]  Terry S. Salinger,et al.  The Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study Final Report: The Impact of Supplemental Literacy Courses for Struggling Ninth-Grade Readers. NCEE 2010-4021. , 2010 .

[41]  Darielle Greenberg.  Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests–Revised , 2014 .

[42]  David Rogosa,et al.  A growth curve approach to the measurement of change. , 1982 .

[43]  M. Pressley,et al.  The Challenges of Classroom Strategy Instruction , 1989, The Elementary School Journal.

[44]  Irma Perez-Johnson,et al.  Variability in Pretest-Posttest Correlation Coefficients by Student Achievement Level. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences , 2011 .

[45]  Terry S. Salinger,et al.  The Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study: Early Impact and Implementation Findings. NCEE 2008-4015. , 2008 .

[46]  Richard K. Olson,et al.  Computer-Based Remedial Training in Phoneme Awareness and Phonological Decoding: Effects on the Posttraining Development of Word Recognition , 1997, Components of Effective Reading Intervention.

[47]  D. Schunk,et al.  Influence of Reading-Comprehension Strategy Information on Children's Achievement Outcomes , 1992 .

[48]  L. Mason.  Explicit Self-Regulated Strategy Development Versus Reciprocal Questioning: Effects on Expository Reading Comprehension Among Struggling Readers. , 2004 .

[49]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  Advances in developmental psychology , 1981 .

[50]  Louisa C. Moats,et al.  When Older Students Can't Read. , 2001 .

[51]  M. Lovett,et al.  Components of Effective Remediation for Developmental Reading Disabilities: Combining Phonological and Strategy-based Instruction To Improve Outcomes. , 2000 .

[52]  D. Francis,et al.  Persistence of dyslexia: the Connecticut Longitudinal Study at adolescence. , 1999, Pediatrics.

[53]  D. Francis,et al.  The measurement of change: Assessing behavior over time and within a developmental context. , 1994 .

[54]  M. Lovett,et al.  Text Comprehension Training for Disabled Readers: An Evaluation of Reciprocal Teaching and Text Analysis Training Programs , 1996, Brain and Language.

[55]  H. Scarborough.  Continuity between childhood dyslexia and adult reading. , 1984, British journal of psychology.

[56]  Roel Bosker,et al.  Multilevel analysis : an introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling , 1999 .

[57]  Rachelle M. Bruno,et al.  Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) , 1999 .

[58]  G. Reid Lyon,et al.  Frames of reference for the assessment of learning disabilities : new views on measurement issues , 1994 .

[59]  H. Lee Swanson,et al.  Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis of Treatment Outcomes , 1999 .

[60]  R. Wagner,et al.  Approaches to the prevention and remediation of phonologically based reading disabilities. , 1997 .

[61]  R. Olson,et al.  Phonological Awareness with and without Articulation: A Preliminary Study , 1997 .

[62]  E. Marinus,et al.  Phonics training for English-speaking poor readers. , 2012, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[63]  J. Kemple,et al.  The Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study: Findings from the Second Year of Implementation. NCEE 2009-4036. , 2008 .

[64]  Lawrence W. Sherman,et al.  Causes of Police Behavior: the Current State of Quantitative Research , 1980 .

[65]  Catherine E. Snow,et al.  Preventing reading difficulties in young children , 1998 .

[66]  Bonnie B. Armbruster.  Does Text Structure/Summarization Instruction Facilitate Learning from Expository Text? Technical Report No. 394. , 1986 .

[67]  Martha Carr,et al.  Effects of Attributional Retraining on Strategy-Based Reading Comprehension in Learning-Disabled Students. , 1988 .

[68]  S. Vaughn,et al.  A Synthesis of Reading Interventions and Effects on Reading Comprehension Outcomes for Older Struggling Readers , 2009, Review of educational research.

[69]  R. Hambleton.  National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) , 2009 .

[70]  Janice M. Keenan,et al.  Comprehending the Gray Oral Reading Test Without Reading It: Why Comprehension Tests Should Not Include Passage-Independent Items , 2006 .

[71]  J. Singer,et al.  Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis , 2003 .

[72]  J. Torgesen.  Remedial Interventions for Students with Dyslexia: National Goals and Current Accomplishments , 2007 .