ERIC Number: EJ1162546
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Dec
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-5984
EISSN: N/A
The Promise of a Literacy Reform Effort in the Upper Elementary Grades
Walpole, Sharon; Amendum, Steven; Pasquarella, Adrian; Strong, John Z.; McKenna, Michael C.
Elementary School Journal, v118 n2 p257-280 Dec 2017
We compared year-long gains in fluency and comprehension in grades 3-5 in 3 treatment and 4 comparison schools. Treatment schools implemented a comprehensive school reform (CSR) program called Bookworms. The program employed challenging text and emphasized high text volume, aggressive vocabulary and knowledge building, and contextualized strategy instruction. Comparison schools used a traditional guided reading approach that matched children to instructional-level texts. We established feasibility of the CSR treatment through document review. Achievement levels were initially comparable in fluency and comprehension. Repeated-measures MANOVAs revealed that for reading fluency, the treatment group grew significantly more than the control group in grades 3 and 5 but not in grade 4. For comprehension, the treatment group exhibited significantly more growth at all 3 grades. Implications of the study are discussed.
Descriptors: Elementary Education, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Comparative Analysis, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Teaching Methods, Reading Fluency, Reading Comprehension, Educational Change, Difficulty Level, Reading Materials, Vocabulary Development, Knowledge Level, Context Effect, Documentation, Content Analysis, Reading Achievement, Statistical Analysis, Age Differences, Multivariate Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A