Improved reading skills by students in the Perrysburg Exempted Village Schools who used Fast ForWord® products.
Scientific Learning Corporation. (2008). MAPS for Learning: Educator Reports, 12(2), 1–6.
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examining308Students, grade2
Fast ForWord® Intervention Report - Beginning Reading
Review Details
Reviewed: March 2013
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Meets WWC standards with reservations
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Please see the WWC summary of evidence for Fast ForWord®.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS): Oral Reading Fluency subtest |
Fast ForWord® vs. business as usual |
post |
Grade 2;
|
101.40 |
94.80 |
No |
-- |
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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Ohio
Study Details
Setting
The study was conducted in the four Perrysburg Exempted Village Schools, located in northern Ohio. The schools belong to one of the highest achieving districts in the state of Ohio.
Study sample
The study was conducted during the fall of the 2006–07 school year with second-grade students from four elementary schools. Students from two schools were assigned to the intervention group, and students from the other two schools were assigned to the comparison group. The analysis sample consisted of 127 students who received Fast ForWord® products and 181 students in the comparison group. The WWC verified that the groups were equivalent at baseline for the analysis sample and subsample of high performing students. Findings for the analysis sample can be found in Appendix C.2. Additional findings reflecting high-performing students’ outcomes can be found in Appendix D.2.21
Intervention Group
Students in the intervention group used the Fast ForWord® Language Basics, Fast ForWord® Language, Fast ForWord® Language to Reading, Fast ForWord® to Reading 1, and Fast ForWord® to Reading 2 products for 30 to 50 minutes per day for an average of 57 days over a 4-month period.
Comparison Group
Students in the comparison group participated in their schools’ regular reading curriculum
Outcome descriptions
For both the pretest and posttest, students took the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Oral Reading Fluency subtest. For a more detailed description of this outcome measure, see Appendix B.
Support for implementation
Teachers were provided information about how phonemic awareness and speech sounds impact language development and reading skills. Teachers were also trained in methods for assessment of potential candidates for participation, the selection of appropriate measures for testing and evaluation, evaluation methods, and effective implementation techniques.
Additional Sources
In the case of multiple manuscripts that report on one study, the WWC selects one manuscript as the primary citation and lists other manuscripts that describe the study as additional sources.
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Scientific Learning Corporation. (2008). Students in Perrysburg, Ohio, improve their reading fluency after using Fast ForWord products: Educator’s briefing. Oakland, CA: Author. Retrieved from http://www.scilearn.com
Fast ForWord® Intervention Report - Adolescent Literacy
Review Details
Reviewed: August 2010
- The study is ineligible for review because it does not use a sample within the age or grade range specified in the protocol.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Please see the WWC summary of evidence for Fast ForWord®.
Findings
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Study sample characteristics were not reported.An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
The name and version of the document used to guide the review of the study.
The version of the WWC design standards used to guide the review of the study.
The result of the WWC assessment of the study. The rating is based on the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies are given a rating of Meets WWC Design Standards without Reservations, Meets WWC Design Standards with Reservations, or >Does Not Meet WWC Design Standards.
A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
Based on the direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of the findings within a domain, the WWC characterizes the findings from a study as one of the following: statistically significant positive effects, substantively important positive effects, indeterminate effects, substantively important negative effects, and statistically significant negative effects. For more, please see the WWC Handbook.
The WWC may review studies for multiple purposes, including different reports and re-reviews using updated standards. Each WWC review of this study is listed in the dropdown. Details on any review may be accessed by making a selection from the drop down list.
Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).