Description:

Co-Principal Investigators: Melissa Fogarty (Texas A&M University) and Michael D. Coyne (University of Connecticut)

Purpose: Results from the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress indicate that more than 60% of fourth graders do not read proficiently. While comprehension difficulties may be influenced by many factors, one compelling reason is that students may not have a deep and flexible understanding and ability to use vocabulary of comprehension. Vocabulary of comprehension is defined as the vocabulary associated with narrative and informational text, text structure, and text processing (e.g. vocabulary such as sources of evidence, main idea, inference, and characters). In this project, researchers plan to develop, refine, and pilot an innovative, technology-enhanced learning system, called the Integrated Vocabulary of Comprehension System (IVCS). The goal of the IVCS is to build at-risk third grader students’ knowledge and application of the vocabulary of comprehension.

Project Activities: Researchers will iteratively develop a vocabulary of comprehension intervention for third grade students at-risk for reading failure. This study will involve multiple cycles of design and development, instructional trials, usability and feasibility studies, and revisions to the intervention. A randomized field trial in the third year will serve as a pilot study to examine the promise of the IVCS for impacting students’ vocabulary and comprehension.

Products: The final product of this project will be the fully-developed IVCS intervention for at-risk third grade students. Peer reviewed publications and other dissemination products will also be produced.

Structured Abstract

Setting: This study will be conducted in school districts in Texas and Connecticut.

Sample: Four teachers and/or reading specialists will participate in Year 1, along with approximately 16 third grade students. In Year 2, eight new third-grade teachers and 24 students will participate in feasibility studies and refinements. Finally, in Year 3, 24 teachers and their 192 third-grade students will participate in a randomized field trial.

Intervention: The IVCS is a computer-based intervention for at-risk third grade students. Interactive elements of IVCS will provide specific and immediate feedback. The software system will be developed for common computer platforms used in schools, and the intervention will be designed for individual instruction and practice in general third-grade classes. The IVCS will feature a selection of high-priority vocabulary of comprehension, including vocabulary for understanding literature and informational text, procedural vocabulary, and comprehension strategy vocabulary. The IVCS will also feature e-instruction of evidence-based vocabulary and comprehension strategies, e-assessment and formative performance feedback, and e-integration exercises to support students as they apply strategies to authentic texts.

Research Design and Methods: This project involves multiple cycles of iterative design and development, instructional trials, usability and feasibility studies, and revisions to the intervention. During the iterative development, students will use the software in their classrooms and take the embedded e-assessments. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected from the e-assessments and from classroom observations and interviews with teachers. Revisions will be made between instructional trials. In the third year, a randomized pilot study will assess students at pretest and posttest using a variety of proximal and distal vocabulary and comprehension measures. Teachers and their students will be randomly assigned to either the IVCS or to a business-as-usual control condition.

Control Condition: Classrooms assigned to the control condition will participate in standard classroom instruction.

Key Measures: A variety of proximal and distal vocabulary and comprehension measures will be used to assess students. For distal outcomes, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4 (PPVT) and the Test of Oral Language Development-Intermediate: 4th Edition (TOLD-I:4) will be used to assess language ability and vocabulary. The reading comprehension subtest of the Gates MacGinitie Reading Test, 4th Edition (GMRT-4) will be used as a distal measure of reading comprehension. Proximal outcome measures of vocabulary and comprehension will include curriculum-embedded target vocabulary and comprehension tests. These end-of-unit assessments will be developed as part of the IVCS.

Data Analytic Strategy: Data will be analyzed using multilevel modeling with students nested within classrooms. Schools will be taken into account using dummy variables as covariates because of the small number of schools. Cross-level interactions will be used to examine potential differential effects of the treatment for students with different demographic backgrounds.