This article draws on previously employed methods for conducting fidelity studies and applies them to an evaluation of an unprescribed intervention. We document the process of assessing the fidelity of implementation of the Math Recovery first-grade tutoring program, an unprescribed, diagnostic intervention. We describe how we drew on recent…

This research investigated the immediate and long-term effects of a Tier 2 intervention for beginning readers identified as having a high probability of reading failure using a randomized control trial. First-grade participants (n = 123) were randomly assigned either to a 25-session intervention targeting key reading components, including…

Considerable research evidence supports the provision of explicit instruction for students at risk for reading difficulties; however, one of the most widely implemented approaches to early reading instruction is Guided Reading (GR; Fountas & Pinnel, 1996), which deemphasizes explicit instruction and practice of reading skills in favor of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which teacher ratings of behavioral attention predicted responsiveness to word reading instruction in first-grade and third-grade reading comprehension performance. Participants were 110 first-grade students identified as at risk for reading difficulties who received 20 weeks of intensive…

The purpose of this study was to compare the long-term effects of 2 first-grade Response to Intervention (RTI) models (Dynamic and Typical RTI) on the reading performance of students in second and third grade. Participants included 419 first-grade students (352 in second grade and 278 in third grade after attrition). Students were classified based…

Educators and policymakers are paying increased attention to the academic outcomes of students in the middle grades (i.e., Grades 6-8). One reform proposed to improve outcomes for these students is to replace middle schools (with Grade 6-8, 7-8, or 7-9 configurations) with K-8 schools. This longitudinal study evaluated the effects of continuously…

This study investigates the impact of teacher characteristics and instructional strategies on the mathematics achievement of students in kindergarten and first grade and tackles the question of how best to use longitudinal survey data to elicit causal inference in the face of potential threats to validity due to nonrandom assignment to treatment.…

This study developed a new survey of teachers' knowledge about early reading and examined the effects of teachers' knowledge on students' reading achievement in Grades 1 to 3 in a large sample of Michigan schools. Using statistical models that controlled for teachers' personal and professional characteristics, students' prior reading achievement,…

This study compared the effects on reading outcomes of delivering supplemental, small-group intervention to first-grade students at risk for reading difficulties randomly assigned to one of three different treatment schedules: extended (4 sessions per week, 16 weeks; n = 66), concentrated (4 sessions per week, 8 weeks; n = 64), or distributed (2…

Too many children fail to learn how to read proficiently with serious consequences for their overall well-being and long-term success in school. This may be because providing effective instruction is more complex than many of the current models of reading instruction portray; there are Child Characteristic x Instruction (CXI) interactions. Here we…

This article examines the effectiveness of four elementary school math curricula: (a) "Investigations in Number, Data, and Space"; (b) "Math Expressions"; (c) "Saxon Math"; and (d) "Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics" ("SFAW"). These curricula are distinct from one another and represent many of the diverse approaches used to teach…

By incorporating two theoretical frameworks this study examines how school characteristics shape first-grade reading ability-grouping practices, and how this, in turn, affects students' reading achievement. The author uses the data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study and applies the propensity-score method to examine whether first-grade…

Prior research estimating the effect of Catholic schooling has focused on high school, where evidence suggests a positive effect of Catholic versus public schooling. In this article, we estimate the effect of attending a Catholic elementary school rather than a public school on the math and reading skills of children in kindergarten through fifth…

Inattention is often associated with reduced response to reading intervention. This study explored attention as a predictor of individual variation in response to a free-access Web-based literacy intervention, ABRACADABRA (http://abralite.concordia.ca) in typical Grade 1 children. A randomized control design was used to contrast two interventions,…

We provide data 3 to 4 years postintervention for four samples of English language learners from two sequential Grade 1 cohorts who received supplemental Grade 1 reading interventions in Spanish or English and for whom the language of instruction for intervention was matched with language of core reading instruction. Participants were 300 students…