RESEARCH PROJECTS: Federally Funded and Foundation Funded
Scaling-up Effective Interventions for Preventing Reading Difficulties (2003-08)
Project
Scale-up is a five-year multi-site research study, funded in 2003 under the
Interagency Educational Research Initiative (IERI)
by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. It represents a collaboration between the
Institute of Reading Research and the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for
Reading and Language Arts (UTCRLA). The primary objective is to investigate the
processes involved with implementing research-validated first-grade reading
interventions on a wide scale, in multiple schools with multiple contexts. We
are also studying the impact of ongoing support, or coaching, provided
periodically to reading intervention teachers through either in-person visits or
interactive technology.
Purpose
We are studying the process of bringing to scale Proactive Reading and Responsive Reading, which differ dramatically in terms of their theoretical orientations and instructional design. Students are randomly assigned to receive one of these interventions. Certified teachers offer the intervention for 40 minutes daily to groups of three students. Both were shown to be equally effective in previous research conducted in six schools in Houston, Texas (Mathes et al., 2005).
Teachers are trained in either Proactive or Proactive Reading and engage in one of the three coaching conditions, On-Site Coaching, On-Demand Coaching, or Virtual Coaching.
This is a longitudinal study that includes 1,728 first-grade students in 37 schools in two widely separated urban areas. The following school districts are participating during the 2005-2006 school year: Bartlett, Burnet, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Dallas, Eanes, Fort Worth, Garland, Luling, Richardson, Rockdale, Rogers, Salado, Thrall, Troy, and UT Elementary School.
Status
During the pilot year, 2003-2004, IRR developed teacher guidebooks and professional development materials for each intervention, as well as the “virtual coach” technology component.
Preliminary outcomes for the first year of implementation, 2004-2005, are positive for both interventions, although differences for coaching models have not been detected in student outcomes.
Scaling-up Project Description (PDF slide presentation)
Project Maximize: Maximizing Literacy Learning Among Children With Mild to Moderate Mental Retardation (2005-09)
Project Maximize, funded in 2005 by the Office of
Special Education Projects (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education, is a
4-year longitudinal study of 150 children who are mildly or moderately mentally
retarded. The students will begin the project in the primary grades (1st through 3rd grades). The purpose of this research is to determine if
what is known about teaching reading to young children who struggle with reading
applies to children who have mild to moderate mental retardation (MR). In
addition, we intend to break new ground in exploring the levels of reading
competence these children can achieve. Two slide presentations (PDFs) regarding
Project Maximize are attached: Project Maximize Research and Project Maximize Intervention.
Purpose
In the current research, we will determine if the intense and explicit instruction that has worked for children who struggled with reading, were likely dyslexic, or English language learners, will also work for children who are mentally retarded. Typically these students have only been taught to read functional sight words. However, there are 2 components to reading: processing words in print, and processing meaning from those words. In this study we will work on both aspects.
Procedures
This study is being conducted as a randomized trial. One group of students will receive a special education program that represents current best practice, provided by the Ft Worth schools with support from our staff. The second group of children will receive the Proactive Reading intervention from highly trained teachers. Students will meet daily in groups of 3 for 55-minute sessions across all 4 years. Each session has 3 components: Proactive Reading (40 minutes) an empirically proven intervention, now commercially available from SRA, Language Support (5 minutes) to assist these students to better understand the content presented in Proactive Reading, and Oral Language Comprehension (10 minutes), which builds on empirically proven storybook routines.
To determine the impact of reading instruction as compared to “current best practice” we will collect measures of multiple dimensions of reading and language and intellect, including measures pretest/posttest, and continuous progress measures collected every 3 weeks across all 4 years. Further, we will observe during experimental and contrast instruction, and measure level of fidelity of the intervention at multiple points each year. Last, we will collect student IEP records, and teacher and parent interviews to allow us to determine if our interventions facilitate access to the general education curriculum.
Project ELLA: English Language/Literacy Acquisition (2004-08)
Project ELLA is a five-year longitudinal research
study funded in 2003 by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of
Educational Science (IES), and represents a collaborative project between
researchers at Texas A & M University, Sam Houston State University, and the
Institute of Reading Research. The primary objective of Project ELLA is to
implement a scientifically rigorous evaluation of alternative instructional
models for primary grade students whose first language is Spanish.
Purpose
This study compares Structured English Immersion and Transitional Bilingual Models when delivered with the highest level of instructional quality and in a fashion reflecting current best practices. We will attempt to determine which instructional delivery model is more effective in helping native Spanish-speaking children acquire English language and literacy. We also seek to know if certain children respond more favorably in one model while others respond more favorably in the other. Ultimately, we intend to determine not just which model is “best,” but under what circumstances and for whom each model is best.
Procedures
This study is a four-year longitudinal investigation of approximately 1200 Spanish-speaking students beginning in their kindergarten year and ending in their third-grade year.
Fluency Foundation: Talking Fingers (2005-06)
This project examines two models for increasing reading fluency. In one model, children are taught advanced decoding skills and are then asked to apply these skills to text reading. In the second model, children are asked to engage in frequent oral reading of connected test. Both models are being compared using computer programs designed to increase reading fluency based on one or the other model.
Texas Instruments Model/Demonstration Project (2004-05)
This model/demonstration project represents a collaboration between the Institute of Reading Research, Head Start of Greater Dallas (HSGD), and the Texas Instruments (TI) Foundation, and is designed to demonstrate the impact of providing quality early childhood education services in three area Head Start Centers in Dallas, Texas. This is a two-year project that began in 2004-2005 and will end in 2005-2006. We are working with the Margaret Cone, Davids’ Place, and Jerry Junkins Head Start Centers to:
- Provide staff development to assist them in most effectively using the LEAP (Language Enrichment Activities Program) curriculum, particularly as it relates to providing differentiated instruction.
- Provide ongoing coaching across the year to teachers teaching both English and Spanish speaking children.
- Provide coaching to the Head Start bilingual coach on effective techniques for coaching.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of LEAP implementation both in terms of teacher adherence to the LEAP curriculum and application of principles for providing differentiated instruction, and in terms of child outcomes.
Procedures
We have provided 46 early childhood educators with staff development through a two-day course designed to build on previously taken LEAP coursework. The objective was to train the staff to use the LEAP curriculum more effectively to target the needs of individual children. We also provide ongoing coaching by SMU staff, following our data-based coaching model developed under prior research conducted at the Institute for Reading Research (IRR). Our SMU coach works with a Head Start bilingual coach on implementing this same coaching model. Finally, we will evaluate effectiveness using multiple measures of language and early literacy collected at the beginning and end of the school year. We will also measure growth across the year each month using continuous progress monitoring probes, and we will conduct classroom observations of LEAP implementation.
Completed Projects
Development of English Language Literacy in Spanish Speaking Children: Project
DELLS (SMU: 2004)
National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development (NICHD)
This research represents a collaboration between the University of Houston, the University of Texas – Austin, the University of Texas – Houston Medical School, and SMU. Multiple projects examine various facets of providing quality education to English language learners who are native Spanish speakers. The Institute for Reading Research is involved in a project that examines the impact of providing intensive reading intervention to struggling readers who are native-Spanish-speaking first graders. Some children are being taught to read in Spanish, while others are being taught to read in English. These children will be monitored through 3rd grade to determine which approach facilitates greater English language and literacy learning. Dr. Mathes is the primary author of the interventions used with both languages. SMU's part of the study is performed in the 4th year of research funding.
Continuous Monitoring of Early Reading Skills (CMERS) (2003)
National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Small Business and
Innovation Research (SBIR Grant).
This project represented a
collaboration between the Institute for Reading Research, the Florida Center for
Reading Research at Florida State University, and Talking Fingers (an
educational computer-programming firm). The project focused on the development
of a computer-administered assessment tool designed to help K-3 teachers monitor
the academic growth (or lack thereof) of their students. The assessment tool
collects information about student growth in the domains of phonemic awareness,
letter knowledge, alphabetic decoding, text reading fluency, spelling,
vocabulary, and comprehension. Assessment data can collected as often as every
week or as infrequently as once a month..
An
Experimental Investigation of LEAP (2004-05)
Texas Instruments Foundation
This project was designed to determine the efficacy of the Language Enrichment Activities Program (LEAP). Conducted in public schools in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, this study compared the reading-readiness skills of children at-risk for future reading and learning difficulties due to low SES or English language-learning issues in a preschool classroom that used the LEAP curriculum to the reading readiness skills of "regular" children who were taught with the LEAP curriculum in another preschool classroom in the same building.