Study: 89424

National Assessment of Title I: Interim Report. Volume II: Closing the Reading Gap: First Year Findings from a Randomized Trial of Four Reading Interventions for Striving Readers. NCEE 2006-4002 [Spell, Read, PAT vs. business as usual]

Torgesen, Joseph; Myers, David; Schirm, Allen; Stuart, Elizabeth; Vartivarian, Sonya; Mansfield, Wendy; Stancavage, Fran; Durno, Donna; Javorsky, Rosanne; Haan, Cinthia (2006). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED491144

Practice Guide

Review Details

Reviewed: November 2021

No statistically significant positive
findings

Meets WWC standards with reservations

For:

Practice Guide (findings for SpellRead PAT)

Using:

Rating:

Meets WWC standards with reservations because it is a compromised randomized controlled trial, but the analytic intervention and comparison groups satisfy the baseline equivalence requirement.

This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Findings

Passage reading fluency-oral outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index	Evidence tier
Oral Reading Fluency Subtest: AIMSweb	SpellRead PAT vs. Business as usual	0 Days	P.A.T v C5th Grade Sample; 104 students	100.60	97.00	No	--

Reading Comprehension outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index	Evidence tier
Woodcock Reading Master Test, Revised - Passage Comprehension	SpellRead PAT vs. Business as usual	0 Days	P.A.T. v C5th grade sample; 104 students	92.10	91.50	No	--
Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE): Passage Comprehension subtest	SpellRead PAT vs. Business as usual	0 Days	P.A.T v C5th Grade Sample; 104 students	90.30	91.00	No	--

Word and pseudoword reading outcomes—Indeterminate effect found for the domain
Outcome measure	Comparison	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement index
Word Attack Subtest: Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised	SpellRead PAT vs. Business as usual	P.A.T. vs C5th Grade; 104 students	101.60	96.30	No	--
Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE)- Phonemic Decoding Efficiency subtest	SpellRead PAT vs. Business as usual	P.A.T. v C5th Grade; 104 students	93.00	88.90	No	--
Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE)- Sight Word Efficiency subtest	SpellRead PAT vs. Business as usual	P.A.T v C5th Grade; 104 students	91.90	89.80	No	--
Word Identification Subtest: Woodcock Reading Master Tests - Revised	SpellRead PAT vs. Business as usual	P.A.T. v C5th Grade; 104 students	91.60	91.50	No	--

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Sample Characteristics

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

Female: 44%
Male: 56%
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Pennsylvania

Race
Black		28%
White		72%

Study Details

Setting

The study was conducted in 50 elementary schools located within 27 school districts outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. All students were in 5th grade.

Study sample

The study sample was 28 percent Black and 72 percent White. Fifty-six percent of the sample was male and 44 percent of the sample was female. Thirty percent of the sample had been diagnosed with a specific learning disability. Finally, 48 percent of the sample was eligible for free or reduced price lunch.

Intervention Group

The study examined the effectiveness of a reading intervention for students struggling with reading. In this contrast, the intervention group received the Spell Read Phonological Auditory Training (P.A.T.) intervention. Students met in small groups of three with a teacher for 50 minutes a day, five days a week, from the first week of November through the first week of May. The Spell Read Phonological Auditory Training was a three-phased, explicit instruction program consisting of 140 sequential lessons focused on building phonemic awareness and phonics skills and incorporates spelling into reading instruction.

Comparison Group

Students in the comparison condition received typical reading instruction and interventions provided by their schools.

Support for implementation

Intervention teachers participated in approximately 70 hours of professional development.