Improving Reading and Mathematics Outcomes for Students with Learning Disabilities: Next Generation Intensive Interventions

Co-Principal Investigators: Fuchs, Lynn; Preacher, Kristopher

IES Program Contact: Sarah Brasiel (Sarah.Brasiel@ed.gov)

Long-Term Follow-Up Award: 2 Years (FY 2020–FY 2021), $748,548

Projects: The Center's primary research included the development of math and reading interventions and the evaluation of the efficacy of the interventions and their components.

Development Studies (Years 1–3)

The base reading and math programs, consisted of multiple evidence-based components, developed iteratively across Years 1–3. During this period, a series of developmental pilot studies were conducted. Each study assessed the relative promise of two active intervention conditions against each other and a business-as-usual condition. In reading, the major focal points of the developmental pilot studies included inferencing embedded working memory training, embedded language (morphology) instruction, and explicit transfer instruction. In math, the major focal points of the developmental pilot studies included decimals, explicit transfer instruction, embedded language instruction, embedded executive function training, and calculations. In both academic domains, the team also developed or adapted proximal and transfer measures and created fidelity and teacher training tools.

In Years 4 and 5, the research team conducted randomized controlled trials to contrast the refined components against each other and against a business-as-usual condition. In reading, the efficacy studies isolated the effects of explicit transfer instruction, embedded working memory training, and a simplified set of components. In math, the efficacy studies isolated the effects of embedded executive functioning instruction, embedded language instruction, error analysis, and interleaved calculations practice. The reading and math interventions at grade 3 and at grades 4–5 in reading and math were finalized based on results from these studies.

To examine longer-term impacts of the grades 4–5 math intervention developed through this grant, the research team received $748,548 in additional funding to collect follow-up data on students in grade 5 (for those who received intervention in grade 4) and on students in grade 6 (for those who received intervention in grade 5). The follow-up study's purpose was to measure the longer-term impact of the intervention on fraction magnitude and fraction calculations, two of the three central focal points of the math intervention. Outcome data from the Fraction Battery 2018 Revised assessment (ordering, equivalencies, calculations) as well as the Number Line Estimation task, all of which were collected at posttest in the intervention year, were collected at follow up. Multilevel regression models were applied to the follow-up outcomes, contrasting intervention and control group students. The research team tested whether the effect of the intervention was moderated by one or more of the pretest measures collected in the fall of the intervention year, including students' whole-number skill, fraction performance, language comprehension, reasoning, processing speed, and working memory.

• At grades 4 and 5, the next-generation A3 intervention, called Reading PI,was found to improve performance on measures of informational text reading comprehension for students identified with or at risk for reading learning disabilities. The Reading PI program has also been shown to help students transfer their reading comprehension skills from texts used for instruction to unrelated non-fiction texts, with implications for measuring student RC outcomes across a range of near- and far-transfer measures.
• At grade 3, Reading PI did not lead to significant improvement in informational text reading comprehension for students identified with or at risk for reading learning disabilities. This echoes the reading comprehension literature, which suggests that intervention targeting reading comprehension at third grade is particularly challenging and there is a need for additional research at third grade.
• At grades 4 and 5, the next-generation A3 math intervention, called Super Solvers, was found to improve measures of fraction performance for students identified with or at risk for mathematics learning disabilities.
• At grade 3, Super Solvers led to improved fraction performance for students identified with or at risk for mathematics learning disabilities.