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Research
Five studies reviewed by the WWC investigated the effects of Read Well® on English language learners. One study (Frasco, 2008) is a randomized controlled trial that meets WWC evidence standards.7 The study included 34 English language learner students in first grade. The intervention group included 17 students assigned to receive Read Well® as their core reading program. The control group included 17 students assigned to receive Macmillan/McGraw-Hill 2003 as their core reading program.
The remaining four studies do not meet either WWC evidence standards or eligibility screens.
Extent of evidence
The WWC categorizes the extent of evidence in each domain as small or medium to large (see the WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook, Appendix G). The extent of evidence takes into account the number of studies and the total sample size across the studies that meet WWC evidence standards with or without reservations.8
The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Read Well® to be small for both reading achievement and English language development for English language learners. No studies that meet WWC evidence standards with or without reservations examined the effectiveness of Read Well® in mathematics achievement for English language learners.
7
In addition to the results discussed below, Frasco (2008) also reports results on the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) that are
excluded from this report since the test measures phonemic awareness, which is not part of any English Language Learners domain.
8 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 the students’ demographics and the types
of settings in which studies took place—are not taken into account for the categorization. Information about how the extent of evidence rating was
determined for Read Well® is in Appendix A5.