Headsprout Early Reading is a computer-based program designed on behavioral principles to enhance the basic skills that underpin the initial development of reading. In a within and between groups design, and using primary schools within Northern Ireland that had a currently high proportion of disadvantaged pupils, children who were behind their…

Reading abilities in Swedish students have declined in recent decades. The current study examined the effectiveness of a full-scale three-tier Response to Intervention (RtI) model designed to improve reading skills in Swedish students. Participants were grade 2 students in a primary school setting. A quasi-experimental between-group design was…

While developmental dyslexia has been extensively studied in children, research on adults is still rather limited. This paper aims to bridge the gap in existing research by presenting the findings of a study that examined the reading and spelling skills of adults with dyslexia and assessed the effectiveness of a linguistic intervention designed to…

LXD Research was engaged by 95 Percent Group to conduct a third-party, mixed-methods efficacy study of their 95 Phonics Core Program (95 PCP) to evaluate the impact on fourth and fifth grade literacy outcomes over the school year 2023-2024. LXD analyzed the formative assessment data from i-Ready, focusing on overall scale scores, subdomains, and…

There is no debate that teaching students to read is an important goal of education. School districts have the challenging tasks of choosing an effective research-based reading program to implement and then ensuring that reading instruction results in improved reading achievement. The Spring Valley School District was faced with these challenges…

Sounds-Write is a systematic synthetic phonics approach that has been successfully used to teach students to read and spell for the last two decades. This volume brings together twelve case studies -- written by practitioners -- of implementation of the Sounds-Write programme in different settings and geographical contexts (Europe, US, Australia).…

We present results from early learning programs in six African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda. In partnership with ministries of education, RTI International has worked within government systems to support the design and deployment of locally contextualized materials, training, and assessment tools, with the goal…

The National Literacy Trust firmly believes in a place-based approach to tackling literacy issues in communities across the UK where low levels of literacy and social mobility are seriously impacting people's lives. In 2013, it launched its Hub model, delivering place-based interventions in areas of the UK with the highest levels of deprivation…

Background: Most funders require non-governmental organisations to evaluate the effectiveness of their programmes. However, in our experience, funders seldom fund evaluation endeavours and organisational staff often lack evaluation skills. Aim: In this outcome evaluation of Living through Learning's (LTL) class-based English-medium Coronation…

This study analyzed the potential transfer effects on reading comprehension skills of two different training programs administered to 9- to 10-year-old children attending fourth grade classes. One training program was based on a working memory updating paradigm (i.e., words, digits, sentence and text updating working memory tasks). The other…

Background: A cost-effective method to address reading delays is to use computer-assisted learning, but these techniques are not always effective. Methods: We evaluated a commercially available computer system that uses visual mnemonics, in a randomised controlled trial with 78 English-speaking children (mean age 7 years) who their schools…

We present the results of a study of local education agency (LEA)-based interventions to improve the reading outcomes of struggling readers in sixth grade. The sample included 1,076 intervention students and 3,644 comparison students. Regression discontinuity was used to evaluate intervention impact. The study contributes to the field by…

Background: Afterschool programs (ASPs) in the United States have been implemented in low income neighborhoods to enable at-risk youth to access educational support services to increase academic skills. However, mixed findings about the ASPs positively affecting academic performance suggests a need for additional evaluative studies. Objective: The…

The present evaluation study sought to determine how LightSail is implemented within schools in three public school districts, Evergreen Public Schools (EPS), Denver Public Schools (DPS), and Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Case studies conducted in a subsample of schools within the three districts included classroom observations,…

This chapter concerns a year-long, United States federally-funded evaluation of Educate Online, an online, at home, 1:1 tutoring program aimed at improving reading performance for middle school students who are below grade level. Participating students receive after-school instruction from teachers in real-time over Voice over Internet Protocol…