Effectiveness

Findings

The WWC review of English language learner interventions addresses student outcomes in three domains: reading achievement, mathematics achievement, and English language development. ⁷

Reading achievement. Gunn et al. (2000) found that the intervention had statistically significant effects on reading achievement. According to WWC criteria, Read Mastery had substantively important effects for four of the five measures immediately after implementation of the program (oral reading fluency, letter/word identification, word attack, and reading vocabulary but not passage comprehension). After one year, three of the five outcome measures showed substantively important effects (word attack, reading vocabulary, and passage comprehension but not oral reading fluency or letter/word identification). This one study, which used a strong design, met WWC criteria for potentially positive effects.

Rating of effectiveness

The WWC rates interventions as positive, potentially positive, mixed, no discernible effects, potentially negative, or negative. The rating of effectiveness takes into account four factors: the quality of the research design, the statistical significance of the findings (as calculated by the WWC), the size of the difference between participants in the intervention condition and the comparison condition, and the consistency in findings across studies (see the WWC Intervention Rating Scheme).