Skip Navigation

What Works Clearinghouse

Search
Intervention: Early Intervention in Reading®

Research

Five studies reviewed by the WWC investigated the effects of EIR®. One study (Taylor, Frye, Short, & Shearer, 1991) was a randomized controlled trial that met WWC evidence standards. The remaining four studies did not meet WWC evidence screens.

Met evidence standards

Taylor, Frye, Short, & Shearer (1991) conducted a randomized controlled trial of first grade teachers in two schools located in a Midwestern suburban school district. In each first grade classroom, five or six of the lowest achieving students participated in the study. In all, 31 students in six classrooms were in the treatment group, and 28 students in six classrooms were in the comparison group.

Extent of evidence

The WWC categorizes the extent of evidence in each domain as small or medium to large (see the What Works Clearinghouse Extent of Evidence Categorization Scheme). The extent of evidence takes into account the number of studies and the total sample size across the studies that met WWC evidence standards with or without reservations. 4

The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Early Intervention in Reading® to be small for alphabetics and comprehension.

4 The Extent of Evidence Categorization was developed to tell readers how much evidence was used to determine the intervention rating, focusing on the number and size of studies. Additional factors associated with a related concept, external validity, such as students' demographics and the types of settings in which studies took place, are not taken into account for the categorization.