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Intervention: Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies <br /> (PALS)©

Overview1

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) is a peer-tutoring program. According to the developer's website, it is designed to be incorporated into the existing curriculum with the goal of improving the academic performance of children with diverse academic needs. Teachers train students to use PALS procedures. Students partner with peers, alternating the role of tutor while reading aloud, listening, and providing feedback in various structured activities. PALS is typically implemented three times a week for 30 to 35 minutes. Although PALS can be used in different subject areas and grade levels, this intervention report focuses on the use of PALS to improve reading skills of students in kindergarten through third grade. 2

Research

Four studies of Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards with reservations. The four studies included more than 360 students from first to third grades in the United States. 3 The WWC considers the extent of evidence for PALS to small for alphabetics, fluency, and comprehension. The WWC considers the extent of evidence for PALS to be medium to large for alphabetics and small for fluency and comprehension. No studies that met WWC evidence standards with or without reservations addressed general reading achievement.

Effectiveness

PALS was found to have potentially positive effects on alphabetics, fluency, and comprehension.

Alphabetics Fluency Comprehension General reading achievement
Rating of effectiveness Potentially positive effects Potentially positive effects Potentially positive effects na
Improvement index4 Average: +19 percentile points
Range: –15 to +45 percentile points		 Average: +13 percentile points
Range: –8 to +31 percentile points		 Average: +13 percentile points
Range: –17 to +28 percentile points		 na
na = not applicable
1 The descriptive information for this program was obtained from publicly available sources: the program's website (http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/pals/, retrieved March 2007) and the research literature (Fuchs, Fuchs, Kazdan, & Allen, 1999; Mathes & Babyak, 2001; Mathes, Howard, Allen, & Fuchs, 1998; and Mathes, Torgesen, Clancy-Menchetti, Santi, Nicholas, Robinson, & Grek, 2003). The WWC requests developers to review the program description sections for accuracy from their perspective. Further verification of the accuracy of the descriptive information for this program is beyond the scope of this review.
2 The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) also reviewed the effects of PALS on the reading achievement of English language learners with learning disabilities. The findings are reported in a separate WWC intervention report.
3 The evidence presented in this report is based on available research. Findings and conclusions may change as new research becomes available.
4 These numbers show the average and range of improvement indices for all findings across the studies.