Found effects

The WWC found Literacy Express to have positive effects on print knowledge and phonological processing, potentially positive effects on oral language and math, and no discernible effects on cognition

Improvement index

The WWC computes an improvement index for each individual finding. In addition, within each outcome domain, the WWC computes an average improvement index for each study and an average improvement index across studies (see Technical Details of WWC-Conducted Computations). The improvement index represents the difference between the percentile rank of the average student in the intervention condition versus the percentile rank of the average student in the comparison condition. Unlike the rating of effectiveness, the improvement index is based entirely on the size of the effect, regardless of the statistical significance of the effect, the study design, or the analyses. The improvement index can take on values between -50 and +50, with positive numbers denoting results favorable to the intervention group.

The average improvement index for oral language is +14 percentile points across the two studies, with a range of +12 to +18 percentile points across findings. The average improvement index for print knowledge is +16 percentile points across the two studies, with a range of +13 to +30 percentile points across findings. The average improvement index for phonological processing is +17 percentile points across the two studies, with a range of +6 to +29 percentile points across findings. The average improvement index for cognition is +1 percentile point for the one study, with a range of -5 to +5 percentile points across findings. The average improvement index for math is +18 percentile points for the one study, with a range of +14 to +23 percentile points across findings.

Findings for comparisons between Literacy Express workshop and Literacy Express mentoring

The comparison of Literacy Express workshop and Literacy Express mentoring was included in the Lonigan et al. (2005) study, but does not contribute to the overall rating of effectiveness because it involves two different implementations of Literacy Express, which does not allow the effects of Literacy Express to be determined. However, the WWC believes that the findings from this comparison provide useful information to practitioners who may be interested in comparing the effects of different implementations of the same program. The WWC reports the findings from this comparison here and in Appendices A5.1-A5.4. Lonigan et al. (2005) analyzed group differences between the mentoring and workshop groups for the same outcome measures listed above in the domains of oral language, print knowledge, phonological processing, and cognition. A statistically significant effect in favor of the mentoring group was found in the print knowledge domain, but outcomes in the other domains did not differ significantly between the workshop and mentoring groups.

Summary

The WWC reviewed two studies on Literacy Express and both studies met WWC evidence standards. Based on these studies, the WWC found positive effects for print knowledge and phonological processing, potentially positive effects for oral language and math, and no discernible effects for cognition. Additional findings that were not considered for the rating of effectiveness indicate that implementing Literacy Express using standard workshops plus mentoring may be beneficial for certain print knowledge outcomes when compared with using Literacy Express with only standard workshops. The evidence presented in this report may change as new research emerges.

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