1. Remedial Reading Interventions

According to the NAEP¹, nearly 4 in 10 fourth graders read below the basic level. Historically, nearly three-quarters of these students never attain average levels of reading skill. To address this problem, many school districts have created remedial programs that aim to improve the skills of students reading below grade level. However, it is very difficult for these students to close the reading gap and become average readers. We know very little about the effectiveness of remedial reading programs for struggling readers in regular school settings.

Closing the Reading Gap, the evaluation of remedial reading programs, is addressing three broad questions:

• What is the impact of being in any of four promising remedial reading interventions, considered as a group, relative to the instruction provided by the schools? What is the impact of being in one of the remedial reading programs that focuses primarily on developing word-level skills, considered as a group, relative to the instruction provided by the schools? What is the impact of being in each of the four particular remedial reading interventions, considered individually, relative to the instruction provided by the schools?
• Do the impacts of programs vary across students with different baseline characteristics?
• To what extent can the instruction provided in this study close the reading gap and bring struggling readers within the normal range, relative to the instruction provided by their schools?

The key findings from the first report on Closing the Reading Gap are summarized later in this document. Volume II of this Interim Report contains the full report on this study. Future reports will include the longer term impacts of these interventions on student achievement.

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