Project III — Remediation

Principal Investigator

Dr. Sharon Vaughn, The University of Texas at Austin

Additional Investigators

Dr. Jack M. Fletcher, University of Houston

Dr. Carolyn Denton, Children’s Learning Instutute, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Description of the Project

Project III involves a study of multitiered instruction and intensive intervention with students in Austin-area and Houston middle schools who do not respond to enhanced reading instruction (moderate intervention). One cohort of students will be followed for three years (2006–2009).

1. Year 1: Beginning in the fall of 2006, at-risk sixth-grade students were identified by examining the previous year’s scores from the state-mandated assessment. These students were provided with either (a) intervention (in groups of approximately 10-15 students) provided by research staff or (b) typical instruction provided by the school. In addition, content area teachers with students identified as at risk in their classrooms received professional development.
2. Year 2: Students who were low responders after one year of intervention then received more intensive intervention — either (a) low-inference instructional intervention or (b) individualized, high-inference intervention — in seventh grade. Intervention groups were also intensified by decreasing group sizes from Year 1 to approximately 5 students per group.
3. Year 3: The first cohort of students will be followed through the end of eighth grade. Students who made minimal progress in Years 1 and 2 will participate in another year of high inference intervention in even smaller groups (approximately 3-5 students).

Population/Participants

Follows one cohort of students with reading difficulties from sixth to eighth grade.

Sites

Middle schools in Round Rock, Manor, and Houston, Texas.

Measures

• Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills
• Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE)
• Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement
• Test of Sentence Reading Efficiency (TOSRE)
• AIMSweb Reading Maze
• Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE)
• Passage Fluency (PF)
• Word List Fluency
• Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test- 2 (K-BIT-2)

Click here for detailed descriptions of all measures used in this study, with references.

Timeline

2006–2010

Findings/Publications

Research is ongoing. Preliminary findings are described in some of the presentations and articles posted on this site.