Project Activities
Researchers conducted a fully powered randomized controlled trial in 81 elementary schools across the 2016–2019 academic years to test the efficacy of a distributed professional development model. Researchers also collected data to examine for whom and under what conditions the distributed professional development model worked. A cost-effectiveness analysis was completed as well.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The study took place in 81 urban and near-urban schools across six school districts in the southwestern United States.
Sample
A total of 235 fourth grade teachers and their 4,757 students consented to participate in the study. Most students were of Hispanic (73.4%) or White (20.4%) ethnicity. More than 50% of students qualified to receive free or reduced lunch and 10% of students were identified with a disability.
Intervention
The distributed professional development model consists of an initial, 6-hour workshop coupled with teacher study team meetings over the course of STRIVE implementation. In this study, the initial workshop was delivered prior to teachers starting STRIVE instruction. The focus of this workshop was to learn a) all the STRIVE instructional practices and b) how to implement Unit 1 lessons. Teachers participated in a teacher study team meeting prior to Unit 2 and Unit 3. These were with small groups of teachers who a) reflected on instruction in the prior unit, b) learned new STRIVE practices, and c) set one major instructional goal for the coming unit. The STRIVE practices include before reading (build background knowledge, explicit vocabulary instruction), during reading (text reading with questioning, Get the Gist strategy) and after reading practices (explicit vocabulary instruction, summary writing). There are a total of 36 STRIVE lessons delivered twice per week over the course of 18 weeks. Each lesson takes about 45 minutes. STRIVE lessons are available free of charge at
https://meadowscenter.org/project/strategies-for-reading-information-and-vocabulary-effectively-strive/.
Research design and methods
The study utilized a randomized controlled design with school-level randomization. The 81 schools participated in one of three cohorts. Cohort 1, in year 1, consisted of 38 schools. Cohort 2, in year two, consisted of 30 schools, and Cohort 3, in year 3, consisted of 13 schools. Schools in each cohort were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: researcher supported PD (n = 26), school supported PD (n = 28) or BAU (n =27). A cost effectiveness study was conducted using the ingredients method to determine the total and incremental cost of the program from a societal perspective.
Control condition
The control condition consisted of "business-as-usual" social studies curriculum and lessons. BAU lessons averaged 34 minutes (SD = 19) minutes in length. The BAU condition teachers used the same progressive state standards and state-developed scope and sequence for teaching as teachers assigned to the treatment conditions. They did not use STRIVE lesson components.
Key measures
Student outcome measures included proximal measures of content knowledge and content vocabulary (researcher developed), mid-transfer measure of content reading comprehension (researcher developed), and far-transfer measures including the Gates MacGinitie Reading Comprehension subtest and Gates MacGinitie Reading Comprehension Vocabulary subtest. Aligned with WWC standards, all measures demonstrate face validity and reliability, no measure is over-aligned with the intervention, and administration of all measures was identical across all conditions.
Data analytic strategy
Researchers used multi-level models (MLMs) to analyze the efficacy of the distributed PD model on student outcomes to account for the nested structure of the data: students within classes and classes within schools. Additional analyses focused on the role of fidelity as a mediator to student outcomes and the efficacy of the distributed PD model featuring STRIVE among students with disabilities, students with inattentive behaviors, and English Learners. We also conducted cost effectiveness analysis using the ingredients method to determine the total and incremental cost of the program from a societal perspective.
Key outcomes
The main findings of this study are as follows:
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Many products were developed to disseminate the results of the study and include 24 peer reviewed articles and book chapters, nine evidence based booklets, 28 conference presentations, 27 school presentations, one video, and four infographics.
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Publicly available data: Data may be accessed with an inter-agency agreement in place. Contact Dr. Elizabeth Swanson at easwanson@austin.utexas.edu for more information.
Selected Publications:
Capin, P., Walker, M A., Vaughn, S., and Wanzek, J. (2017). Examining How Treatment Fidelity Is Supported, Measured, and Reported in K-3 Reading Intervention Research. Educational Psychology Review, 1-35.
Stewart, A. A., Vaughn, S., Scammacca, N., & Swanson, E. A. (2023). Evidence-Based Reading Instruction for Students with Inattention: A Pilot Study. Remedial and Special Education, 44(4), 294-307.
Swanson, E. (2015). Infusing the Social Studies with Literacy Practices to Improve Outcomes for Students with Learning Disabilities. Journal of Childhood & Developmental Disorders, 1(1).
Swanson, E., Stevens, E.A., Scammacca, N. K., Capin, P., Stewart, A.A., and Austin, C.R. (2017). The Impact of Tier 1 Reading Instruction on Reading Outcomes for Students in Grades 4-12: A Meta-Analysis. Reading and Writing, 30(8), 1639-1665.
Swanson, E., Stewart, A. A., Stevens, E. A., Scammacca, N. K., Capin, P., Bhat, B. H., . . . Vaughn, S. (2024). The Efficacy of Two Models of Professional Development Mediated by Fidelity on Fourth Grade Student Reading Outcomes. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 17(2), 288-317.
Swanson, E., Vaughn, S., and Wexler, J. (2017). Enhancing Adolescents' Comprehension of Text by Building Vocabulary Knowledge. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 50(2), 84-94.
Vaughn, S., Swanson, E., Fall, A-M, Roberts, G., Capin, P., Stevens, E. A & Stewart, A. (2022). The efficacy of school and research provided professional development on English learners' literacy. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(2), 257-272.
Related projects
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigators: Vaughn, Sharon; Roberts, Gregory
- Students in classrooms of teachers who participated in the distributed PD model outperformed students in the business-as-usual comparison group on measures of content knowledge, content vocabulary, and content reading comprehension. This was true whether the distributed PD model was supported by researchers or school personnel (Swanson, Stewart et al., 2024).
- When the distributed PD model was supported by school personnel, students in classrooms of teachers who participated in the distributed PD model outperformed students in the business-as-usual comparison group on an additional measure of general vocabulary (Swanson, Stewart et al., 2024).
- Students with disabilities who received STRIVE lessons outperformed their peers on the measures of content knowledge and content vocabulary (Swanson, Vaughn et al., 2021).
- English learners who received STRIVE lessons outperformed their peers on the measures of content knowledge, vocabulary and comprehension (Vaughn et al., 2021).
- Students with inattentive behaviors who received STRIVE lessons outperformed their peers on the measures of content knowledge, content vocabulary and content reading comprehension (Stewart et al., 2023).
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