Previous Award Number: R324A150091
Previous Awardee: Regents of the University of California

Co-Principal Investigator: Carolyn Denton (University of Texas Health Science Center Houston)

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of Reading RULES for first-grade students who are at risk for serious reading difficulties and disabilities in both word reading and comprehension. Students who do not learn to read adequately in the early grades typically have persistent reading difficulties. Potential persistent reading problems may be prevented or their severity reduced if they are addressed aggressively and early. Reading RULES combines whole-class and intensive small-group intervention designed to improve word reading, fluency, listening, and reading comprehension.

Project Activities: Approximately 96 first-grade classrooms will participate in this research project. The study will focus on five first-grade students from each classroom at risk for reading difficulties in both word reading and comprehension. Reading RULES combines whole-class and small-group intervention with carefully-sequenced instruction in word reading, fluency, listening, and reading comprehension. A randomized controlled trial, with teachers randomly assigned to either a treatment or business-as-usual control group, will be used to study the efficacy of the intervention. Students will be assessed before, during, and after intervention and in second grade to determine whether students who receive Reading RULES have better reading outcomes than those in the control group.

Products: The products of this project will include the efficacy of Reading RULES for improving reading outcomes, peer-reviewed publications, and presentations.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The research will take place in elementary schools in Texas and California.

Population: Approximately 96 first-grade classrooms will participate. The study will focus on five first-grade students from each classroom who are at risk for reading difficulties in both word reading and comprehension. It will also include five first-grade students who are not at risk for reading difficulties from each classroom to determine whether classroom instruction improves outcomes for other students in the class.

Intervention: Reading RULES was designed to increase teachers' scaffolding during reading instruction and student involvement and opportunities to practice learned skills. It combines whole-class and small-group intervention with carefully-sequenced instruction in word reading, fluency, listening, and reading comprehension. It includes curriculum-specific mastery tests that assess student progress and allow teachers to adjust how students progress through the program. Students will participate in Reading RULES instruction for 4 days per week for 20 weeks, with typically developing students receiving the whole-class component of the intervention.

Research Design and Methods: A randomized controlled trial will be used to study the efficacy of Reading RULES. Three cohorts of teachers, with approximately 32 teachers each year, will participate in the study. Teachers will be randomly assigned to the treatment or business-as-usual condition. Students will be assessed before, during, and after intervention and in second grade to determine whether students who receive Reading RULES have better outcomes than those in the control group.

Control Condition: A business-as-usual comparison group will be included in the study with students receiving instruction and intervention typically provided by their schools. This condition will include children with and without risk for reading difficulties.

Key Measures: A series of word reading, fluency, and comprehension measures will be administered. Measures include  the Texas Primary Reading Inventory; Letter Word Identification, Word Attack, Passage Comprehension, and Oral Comprehension subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement; Test of Word Reading Efficiency-2; Oral Reading Fluency subtest of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills-Next; Understanding Spoken Paragraphs subtest of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4; and Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test-4. In addition, the team will also collect cognitive-behavioral measures (e.g., working memory, attentional control) to determine whether these skills moderate intervention effects. Finally, data will be collected on teacher implementation, the nature of school-provided instruction, and cost of intervention implementation.

Data Analytic Strategy:  Latent growth curve analysis will be used to estimate the effects of Reading RULES on measures of first graders' literacy skills. The team will also conduct a series of exploratory analyses using growth curve models and stepwise regression to examine potential mediators and moderators of the effects of Reading RULES.

Related IES Projects: First Grade Super-Readers: Intervention for the Prevention of Reading Comprehension and Decoding Difficulties in Young Children At-Risk for Reading Disabilities (R324A100129)