Policymakers face dilemmas when choosing a policy, program, or practice to implement. Researchers in education, public health, and other fields have proposed a sequential approach to identifying interventions worthy of broader adoption, involving pilot, efficacy, effectiveness, and scale-up studies. In this paper, we examine a scale-up of an early…

This study evaluated the efficacy of the Word Learning Strategies (WLS) supplementary program to improve elementary students' vocabulary skills and reading comprehension. The study used a multi-site cluster randomized, experimental design, which randomly assigned 92 4th grade classrooms (n=2558 students) from two cohorts to a treatment or control…

Research examining effective reading interventions for students with reading difficulties in the upper elementary grades is limited relative to the information available for the early elementary grades. In the current study, we examined the effects of a multicomponent reading intervention for students with reading comprehension difficulties. We…

Research examining effective reading interventions for students with reading difficulties in the upper elementary grades is limited relative to the information available for the early elementary grades. In the current study, we examined the effects of a multicomponent reading intervention for students with reading comprehension difficulties. We…

To compare the efficacy of instructional programs for adult learners with basic reading skills below the 7th-grade level, 300 adults were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 supplementary tutoring programs designed to strengthen decoding and fluency skills, and gains were examined for the 148 adult students who completed the program. The 3 intervention…

This study tested the efficacy of supplemental phonics instruction for 84 low-skilled language minority (LM) kindergarteners and 64 non-LM kindergarteners at 10 urban public schools. Paraeducators were trained to provide the 18-week (January-May) intervention. Students performing in the bottom half of their classroom language group (LM and non-LM)…

Unfortunately, little is known about school-based interventions that address the needs of struggling adolescent readers. To help fill these gaps in knowledge and to provide evidence-based guidance to practitioners, the U.S. Department of Education initiated the Enhanced Reading Opportunities (ERO) Study--a demonstration and random assignment…

Research Findings: This study reports on the outcomes of a multisite, two-tiered, response-to-intervention instructional model for delivering phonological awareness instruction and intervention to kindergartners. Fifty-seven kindergartners from 3 classrooms participated in a supplemental phonological awareness program, and 56 kindergartners from 3…

This study examined effects of a repeated reading intervention, Quick Reads, with incidental word-level scaffolding instruction. Second- and third-grade students with passage-reading fluency performance between the 10th and 60th percentiles were randomly assigned to dyads, which were in turn randomly assigned to treatment (paired tutoring, n = 82)…

Employing a randomized field trial, this 3-year study explored the effects of a multiyear summer school program in preventing the cumulative effect of summer learning losses and promoting longitudinal achievement growth, for a total treatment group of 438 students from high-poverty schools. Longitudinal outcomes for the participants were…

This article reports the effects of a 2-year supplemental reading program for students in kindergarten through third grade that focused on the development of decoding skills and reading fluency. Two hundred ninety-nine students were identified for participation and were randomly assigned to the supplemental instruction or to a no-treatment control…

Two studies--one quasi-experimental and one randomized experiment--were designed to evaluate the effectiveness of supplemental instruction in structural analysis and oral reading practice for second- and third-grade students with below-average word reading skills. Individual instruction was provided by trained paraeducators in single- and…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of code-oriented supplemental instruction for kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties. Paraeducators were trained to provide 18 weeks of explicit instruction in phonemic skills and the alphabetic code. Students identified by their teachers meeting study eligibility criteria…

A three-semester study investigated the effects on academic performance of a freshman seminar paired with a core sociology course. Students in the paired course achieved higher grades in the course and higher grade point averages for the semester of intervention than did nonparticipating control group students. After two years, freshman seminar…