Paul Yovanoff – Research

Reading skill fails to improve when schools follow current practices that require struggling readers to fail first before they merit tutoring or extra teaching

Reading skills improve very little when schools follow the current standard practice of waiting for struggling readers to fail first before providing them with additional help, according to researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

In contrast, a recent study found that a dynamic intervention in which struggling readers received the most intensive help immediately, enabled students to significantly outperform their peers who had to wait for additional help, said Stephanie Al Otaiba, lead author on the research.

“We studied how well struggling readers respond to generally effective standard protocols of intervention to help them improve. We found that how those interventions are provided within a school — how immediately they are provided — makes an important difference,” said Al Otaiba, professor of teaching and learning in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at SMU.

Proficient reading is critical, and early intervention is imperative, said co-author and academic skills measurement expert Paul Yovanoff, also a professor of teaching and learning in the Simmons School.

About 40 percent of U.S. children in fourth grade do not read at a proficient level, Yovanoff said.

“We’re not talking about a small group of children,” he said. “We’re talking about a large group. And the number is higher in urban areas and higher among minority students. How can these kids grow up and participate in society as moms and dads in the economy unless they’re literate? Reading is a bottleneck for their success in school and in life.”

Determined to help more struggling readers, the researchers hope the findings of their study will lead to further research that helps educators identify where the malleable levers are for change within school systems and in professional development for teachers.

“It’s possible schools could manage interventions and assess interventions differently,” Al Otaiba said. “And schools might also provide teachers with different or added professional development, coaching and support, particularly where so many struggling readers are included in general education for a large portion of the school day.”

A wait-to-fail system can be the unintended consequence of response to intervention as it’s currently practiced in U.S. schools, the researchers said.

“If you have to wait a certain time to demonstrate that you need more help, then it’s a wait-to-fail system,” Yovanoff said. “Good teaching would collect frequent information about the student’s performance and adjust help appropriately.”

The research was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

Co-author was Jeanne Wanzek, the Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University.

The researchers reported the findings in their article “Response to Intervention” in the European Scientific Journal. It’s published online at the European Scientific Journal site.

Those with intensive intervention immediately outperformed
The study, initiated in 2011, followed 522 first grade public school students for three years through third grade.

At the start of the study, the children were young beginning readers with the poorest initial reading skills, who were struggling and at risk for developing reading disabilities.

The children were randomly sorted into two groups. One group was assigned to receive an immediate and intensive intervention, which included additional structured reading instruction 45 minutes a day, four days a week, in subgroups of three to five students.

The second group started with good classroom instruction. Children who didn’t respond well after eight weeks received additional help. If they continued not to respond, they received another layer of help. Educators call this approach a multi-tier model of response to intervention.

“We contrasted the multi-tier model with what we call a dynamic model, where we gave kids with the weakest initial skills the strongest intervention right away,” Al Otaiba said. “The kids in the dynamic system outperformed the kids who got help later.”

Struggling readers boosted skills significantly
The researchers followed up on the students in third grade, and found that those that had received the immediate intensive intervention continued to outperform the children who had to wait, Al Otaiba said.

Those children are now in sixth grade, and the researchers continue to monitor their performance.

Students in the study who received appropriate intensive interventions significantly outperformed the students who had to wait by a third of a standard deviation, Yovanoff said

“So when we say our intervention has improved performance by a third of a standard deviation, we’ve increased their skill beyond a random fluctuation in performance,” he said “We’re quite confident this child has in fact learned to a very significant degree. It’s statistically significant.”

Even those helped the most failed to catch up with peers
Did struggling readers who improved catch up to their non-struggling peers, however?

Yes — in their ability to pronounce and read a real word, the researchers found.

But they continued to lag behind their peers in how fast they could read, and in intonation and comprehension.

“Still, they were less far behind in those areas than the kids who had to wait to get help,” Al Otaiba said.

The researchers measured growth and change over time, as opposed to a student’s performance at one specific point. So as time goes on, it’s possible to see the gap closing, the researchers said.

The researchers hope the study findings will guide schools in effective intervention practices.

“The notion is to develop more intensive, individualized interventions to help prevent reading problems and maximize reading skills for children who are struggling,” Al Otaiba said. — Margaret Allen

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Study offers hope for all struggling readers after large sample of special education students and students with low IQ significantly improved their reading ability over several academic years

The findings of a pioneering four-year educational study offer hope for thousands of children identified with intellectual disability or low IQ who have very little, if any, reading ability.

The study by researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, is the first large-scale longitudinal study of its kind to demonstrate the reading potential of students with intellectual disability or low IQ, said lead author Jill H. Allor, principal investigator of the study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

The researchers found that students with intellectual disability who participated in four years of persistent, specialized instruction successfully learned to read at a first-grade level or higher.

“This study proves that we should never give up on anyone. It raises expectations for all children,” Allor said. “Traditionally the focus of instruction for students with intellectual disability has been functional skills, such as how to manage their personal hygiene, do basic chores around the house or simple work skills. This study raises academic expectations as well.”

The study demonstrates there’s hope for every struggling reader, said Allor, a reading researcher whose expertise is reading acquisition. The study’s implications can be life-changing for non-readers and struggling readers.

“If these children, and any other struggling readers, can learn to read, that means they can go grocery shopping with a shopping list, read the labels on boxes and cans, and read basic instructions,” Allor said. “Even minimal reading skills can lead to a more independent life and improved job opportunities.”

The findings indicate a critical need for more research to determine ways to streamline and intensify instruction for these students, said Allor, whose research focuses on preventing reading failure among struggling readers.

“This study demonstrates the potential of students with intellectual disability or low IQ to achieve meaningful literacy goals,” said Allor. “And it also clearly demonstrates the persistence and intensity needed to help children with low IQs learn to read.”

Students identified with intellectual disability account for nearly one in every 100 public school students, according to the study, which cites the U.S. Department of Education. Of those identified with intellectual disability who do graduate, most don’t receive a diploma, only a certificate of completion, said the study’s authors, all from SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

“This article is a call for boldness and the redoubling of our efforts to truly teach all children to read,” said the authors.

The researchers report the findings, “Is scientifically based reading instruction effective for students with below-average IQs?” in the journal Exceptional Children, published by the Council for Exceptional Children.

The study was funded with a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Allor, professor in the department of teaching and learning in the SMU Simmons School, was principal investigator.

Successful instruction relied on proven, scientific-based teaching method
For the study, a group of 141 children was divided into two groups. One group of 76 children received the reading intervention. A group of 65 children was taught in a business-as-usual instructional environment, which included various amounts of reading instruction and methods.

The children in the intervention group were taught reading 40 to 50 minutes a day in intensive small group settings of one to four students per teacher. Teachers used “Early Interventions in Reading,” a proven curriculum designed by SMU reading specialist and study co-author Patricia G. Mathes and Allor.

Most of the students entered the study around the age of 7 and variously were identified with disabilities including Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, Williams syndrome or a physical disability. All of the students had the ability to speak.

IQs of the students in the study ranged from 40 to 80. IQ scores in the range of 85 to 115 are considered to be average.

Instruction was provided by six teachers certified in special education and four part-time teachers certified in general education. Teaching experience ranged from five years to 35 years.

After four years of the specialized teaching the researchers found that students with mild or moderate intellectual disability could independently read at the first-grade level, and some even higher.

Students receiving the specialized instruction significantly outperformed the comparison group on a variety of key reading tests.

Scientifically based reading program put to the test
The current study also demonstrates the effectiveness of a teaching method that’s scientifically based for use with children identified with intellectual disability or low IQ, said Allor.

Mathes and Allor, former special education teachers, developed the study’s reading program after research into how children with dyslexia and other learning problems learn to read.

Teachers providing the intervention received extensive support and training, the authors said. That included multi-day professional development training on curriculum implementation, monthly meetings with the research team to address instructional and behavioral issues, and instructional support from reading coaches who previously taught the intervention.

The program, previously validated with struggling readers without intellectual disability or low IQ, included a series of brief activities that increased in difficulty that were geared toward phonological awareness, letter knowledge and sounds, sounding out and sight words.

Fluency was developed from repeated reading in unison to paired reading and independent timed reading, the authors said. Comprehension activities included strategies for both listening and reading comprehension.

Students used provided materials that included word cards, small readers and activity pages to play reading games or to read aloud with someone else.

IQ is generally considered a predictor of learning ability, but in this study with students who are intellectually disabled or low IQ, the results showed that IQ didn’t always predict academic achievement. Although generally students with higher IQs improved more quickly, there were many individual cases where a student with a lower IQ outperformed a student with a higher IQ, Allor said.

Coauthors were Patricia Mathes, TI Endowed Chair in Evidence-Based Education and a professor in the Simmons School; J. Kyle Roberts; Jennifer P. Cheatham, research associate; and Stephanie Al Otaiba, professor.

The research will continue under a new $1.5 million U.S. Department of Education grant, led by Allor, principal investigator on the grant. Al Otaiba and Paul Yovanoff, both professors in SMU’s new special education program, are co-investigators on the new grant. — Margaret Allen

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Reading skill fails to improve when schools follow current practices that require struggling readers to fail first before they merit tutoring or extra teaching

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Study offers hope for all struggling readers after large sample of special education students and students with low IQ significantly improved their reading ability over several academic years