Purpose: The purpose of this project is to evaluate the efficacy and study systematic variations of delivery intensity for the Early Reading Intervention (ERI), a commercial program that is designed for kindergarten children at risk of reading difficulty and used in more than 4,000 school districts in all 50 states. Also, the researchers intend to sample participating schools to capture a broad range of demographic diversity and to evaluate ERI's efficacy in sites distal to ERI developers.

Project Activities: The researchers are using experimental randomized controlled field trials to gain information regarding the efficacy, replicability, and durability of student effects. Research will be conducted in three states (TX, FL, and CT), and participating schools have high concentrations of socioeconomically disadvantaged children from three predominant ethnicities: African American, Hispanic, and White NonHispanic. Over 4 years, 26 schools, 108 kindergarten teachers, 26 intervention teachers, and 624 kindergarteners will participate. Main effects and interactions will be tested using latent growth modeling methods, hierarchal linear modeling, and structural equation modeling. Also, the researchers will identify factors that moderate and mediate effects to determine the conditions necessary to effect student achievement. In addition, the study will examine ways to intensify the ERI program for children who do not respond adequately to conventional small-group delivery. Finally, cost/benefit analyses will also be conducted.

Products: The expected outcomes from this study include:

1. Published reports on the efficacy of the ERI program in 52 kindergarten classrooms; information on variables among children, teachers, and interventions that mediate or moderate the impacts of the intervention; and results on the varied intensity of delivery for the ERI program,
2. Presentations on identified "profiles" of curricular and learner variables that best predict nonresponsiveness or underresponsiveness, and
3. A cost analysis of the ERI program comparing the various experimental conditions.

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of Early Reading Intervention (ERI), a commercial program that is designed for kindergarten children at risk of reading difficulty and used in more than 4,000 school districts in all 50 states. In addition, systematic variations of the delivery intensity of ERI will be studied.

Setting: Participating schools will be located in Texas, Florida, and Connecticut.

Population: During the project period, 26 schools, 108 kindergarten teachers, and 624 kindergarteners will participate. Participating schools will have high concentrations of socioeconomically disadvantaged children from three predominant ethnicities: African American, Hispanic, and White Nonhispanic. The study will focus on the performance of the 4 lowest performing children from each class since they are most at risk of reading difficulty.

Intervention: ERI is designed to provide at-risk kindergarten children with an intervention intended to improve reading achievement through supplementing the general education curriculum. A teacher or teacher assistant delivers 30-minute daily lessons to small groups of two to five children. Each 30-minute lesson consists of seven activities, which are designed to last only three to five minutes. The first 15 minutes of each lesson focus on phonological awareness and alphabetic understanding, while the next 15 minutes center on writing and spelling. A comprehensive assessment plan is an important part of this intervention. An assessment handbook that accompanies ERI provides teachers with tools needed to make instructional decisions before the intervention is implemented (the placement test), during the intervention (progress monitoring), and after the intervention is completed (an exit test).

Research Design and Methods: In Years 1 and 2, an experimental study will be conducted with teachers being randomly assigned to ERI or typical school implemented interventions to test the efficacy of the ERI intervention. In Year 1, research will be conducted in Texas and Connecticut in sites close to ERI developers, while in Year 2, research will be conducted in Florida at distal sites. Children will be followed through second grade to evaluate durability of intervention effects. In Years 3 and 4, students most at risk of inadequately responding to ERI will be randomly assigned to one of two forms of ERI in order to examine ways of intensifying the program.

Control Condition: In Years 1 and 2, children in the comparison group will not receive treatment but continue with intervention support typically provided by their schools.

Key Measures: The efficacy of ERI will be evaluated on a range of standardized, norm-referenced measures of phonemic awareness, letter naming, letter-sound and word identification, word attack, oral reading fluency and comprehension. In addition, data related to fidelity and costs of intervention implementation will be collected.

Data Analytic Strategy: Quantitative data analysis techniques, including latent growth modeling methods, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), and structural equation modeling, will be utilized to test main effects of the ERI program and its intensified versions and to identify factors that mediate and moderate these effects.

Products and Publications

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Clemens, N.H., Oslund, E.L., Simmons, L.E., and Simmons, D.C. (2014). Assessing Spelling in Kindergarten: Further Comparison of Scoring Metrics and Their Relation to Reading Skills. Journal of School Psychology, 52(1): 49–61. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2013.12.005

Coyne, M.D., Little, M.E., Rawlinson, D.M., Simmons, D.C., Kwok, O., Kim, M., Simmons, L.E., Hagan-Burke, S., and Civetelli, C. (2013). Replicating the Impact of a Supplemental Beginning Reading Intervention: The Role of Instructional Context. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 6(1): 1–23. doi:10.1080/19345747.2012.706694

Coyne, M.D., Simmons, D.C., Hagan-Burke, S., Simmons, L. E., Kwok, O., Kim, M., Fogarty, M., Oslund, E., Taylor, A., Capozzoli-Oldham, A., Ware, S., Little, M.E., and Rawlinson, D.M. (2013). Adjusting Beginning Reading Intervention Based on Student Performance: An Experimental Evaluation. Exceptional Children, 80(1): 25–44.

Hagan-Burke, S., Coyne, M.D., Kwok, O., Simmons, D.C., Kim, M., Simmons, L.E., Skidmore, S.T., Hernandez, C.L., and Ruby, M.M. (2013). The Effects and Interactions of Student, Teacher, and Setting Variables on Reading Outcomes for Kindergarteners Receiving Supplemental Reading Intervention. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 46(3): 260–277. doi:10.1177/0022219411420571

Hagan-Burke, S., Kwok, O., Zou, Y., Johnson, C., Simmons, D., and Coyne, M.D. (2011). An Examination of Problem Behaviors and Reading Outcomes in Kindergarten Students. Journal of Special Education, 45(3): 131–148. doi:10.1177/0022466909359425?

Little, M.E., Rawlinson, D., Simmons, D.C., Kim, M., Kwok, O., Hagan-Burke, S., Simmons, L.E., Fogarty, M., Oslund, E., and Coyne, M.D. (2012). A Comparison of Responsive Interventions on Kindergarteners' Early Reading Achievement. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 27(4): 189–202. doi:10.1111/j.1540–5826.2012.00366.x

McAlenney, A. L., & Coyne, M. D. (2015). Addressing false positives in early reading assessment using intervention response data. Learning Disability Quarterly, 38, 53–65. doi:10.1177/0731948713514057

Oslund, E.L., Hagan-Burke, S., Taylor, A.B., Simmons, D.C., Simmons, L., Kwok, O., Johnson, C., and Coyne, M.D. (2012). Predicting Kindergarteners' Response to Early Reading Intervention: An Examination of Progress-Monitoring Measures. Reading Psychology, 33(1): 78–103. doi:10.1080/02702711.2012.630611

Oslund, E.L., Simmons, D.C, Hagan-Burke, S., Kwok, O., Simmons, L.E., Taylor, A.B., and Coyne, M.D. (2015). Can Curriculum-Embedded Measures Predict the Later Reading Achievement of Kindergarteners at Risk of Reading Disability?. Learning Disability Quarterly, 38(1): 3–14. doi:10.1177/0731948714524752

Simmons, D. C. (2015). Instructional engineering principles to frame the future of reading intervention research and practice. Remedial and Special Education, 36, 45–51. doi:10.1177/0741932514555023

Simmons, D.C., Coyne, M.D., Hagan-Burke, S., Kwok, O., Simmons, L., Johnson, C., Zou, Y., Taylor, A.B., McAlenney, A.L., Ruby, M., and Crevecoeur, Y.C. (2011). Effects of Supplemental Reading Interventions in Authentic Contexts: A Comparison of Kindergarteners' Response. Exceptional Children, 77(2): 207–228.

Simmons, D.C., Kim, M., Kwok, O., Coyne, M.D., Simmons, L. E., Oslund, E., Fogarty, M., Hagan-Burke, S., Little, M.E., and Rawlinson, D. (2013). Examining the Effects of Linking Student Performance and Progression in a Tier 2 Kindergarten Reading Intervention. Journal of Learning Disabilities. doi:10.1177/0022219413497097

Simmons, D.C., Taylor, A.B., Oslund, E.L., Simmons, L.E., Coyne, M.D., Little, M.E., Rawlinson, D.M., Hagan-Burke, S., Kwok, O., and Kim., M. (2014). Predictors of At-Risk Kindergarteners' Later Reading Difficulty: Examining Learner-by-Intervention Interactions. Reading and Writing, 27(3): 451–479. doi:10.1007/s11145–013–9452–5