Project Activities
In order to understand how these cognitive components and reading engagement contribute to reading comprehension, researchers will work with four cohorts of students in grades 1 to 5 over three years. Using a cohort sequential design, the team will assess students in the fall and spring of each academic year. In Year 4, the research team will analyze the data and disseminate the findings.
Structured Abstract
Setting
This study will take place in public schools in suburban Maryland. The school district includes a diverse student body, both along economic dimensions and ethnic characteristics. The research team will work with schools that have a high incidence of Spanish-speaking ELs.
Sample
Participants will include approximately 1,000 students in grades one to five, both ELs and EMs. The research team will recruit participating students in Year 1 and students will participate in the study longitudinally.
Intervention
There is no intervention in this project.
Research design and methods
The research team will use a cohort sequential design with four cohorts of students over 3 years. In each of the first three years, the research team will assess students in the fall and spring. In Year 1, approximately 250 students in each of grades 1, 2, 3, and 4, will participate. The following year, these same students, now in grades 2, 3, 4, and 5, will participate. In Year 3, students remaining in elementary school, now in grades 3, 4, and 5, will participate. The battery of measures includes both individual and group measures, and will take approximately 2 hours to administer. In Year 4, the research team will analyze the data and disseminate the findings.
Control condition
There is not a control condition in this project.
Key measures
Predictors of reading comprehension include the oral comprehension, picture vocabulary, and letter and word identification subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement, the inconsistency detection task, measures of inference making, and reading awareness. Researchers will measure executive function using the Inhibition subtest of the NEPSY-II (NEuroPSYchological Developmental Assessment), the Letters Backward Subtest of the Test of Memory and Learning – 2 (TOMAL-2), and the Graphophonological-Semantic Flexibility task. They will measure reading engagement using the Reading Engagement Index. The research team will measure reading comprehension using the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement-II and the Gates-McGinitie Reading Comprehension Test.
Data analytic strategy
The research team will use latent growth curve analyses to measure growth trajectories for each of the key constructs.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Products: The products include evidence of the contributions of cognitive factors and reading engagement to the development of reading comprehension in both English Learners and English Monolinguals in the elementary grades. The team will also produce peer reviewed publications.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigator: Kelly Cartwright (Christopher Newport University); Laura Stapleton (University of Maryland, College Park)
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
