Education reform in the United States is heavily regulated and has undergone various iterations in the past several decades. With each passing legislation, government mandates and educational initiatives become the focus of reform. School districts must constantly find ways to keep up with increasing state and federal accountability standards.…

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted educational outcomes, including reading achievement in grades 3-5, particularly in schools primarily serving high-poverty communities of color. This study evaluates the 95 Phonics Lesson Library (95 PLL), a targeted phonics intervention program, in a low socio-economic status, ethnically diverse,…

This study, conducted by LXD Research, evaluates the 95 Phonics Lesson Library (95 PLL), a targeted phonics intervention program in a majority low SES, ethnically diverse midwestern school district from 2023-2024. Using a quasi-experimental mixed-method design, this study compares reading outcomes of fourth and fifth graders using 95 PLL with a…

This study examined the effect of a supplemental, multicomponent reading intervention with 75 seventh graders who scored below grade level according to a battery of assessments. Students received a yearlong reading intervention during the 2021-2022 or 2022-2023 school year. Students' pretest and posttest data were compared to determine the impact…

In this paper we examine academic recovery in 12 mid- to large-sized school districts across 10 states during the 2021-22 school year. Our findings highlight the challenges that recovery efforts faced during the 2021-22 school year. Although, on average, math and reading test score gains during the school year reached the pace of pre-pandemic…

Recent standardized state tests have revealed a consistent decline in reading scores across grade levels, forcing conversation about intervention in place to combat this. Developed using Vygotsky's theory of Zone of proximal development, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Read 180 reading intervention program promises to close reading gaps of up to two…

This improvement project was designed to ensure students enrolled in elementary schools with a high poverty index received literacy instructional strategies that promoted literacy achievement. When analyzing Graham County School data, I noticed third-grade students attending high poverty elementary schools were not achieving literacy success at…

This dissertation examines how implementing READ 180 for 9th grade students affects their Lexile level and reading ability. The research focuses on two questions: what changes were noticed in the students' Lexile levels? and what program recommendations can be made moving forward? The methodology used was PDSA and improvement science. The study…

The current study compared the reading growth of (a) students who received targeted interventions, (b) students who received typical school interventions, and (c) students who were proficient readers at the study's onset. The participants were 1,513 students in first through fifth grades who attended one of three treatment schools or one of three…

Many seem to believe that researcher-made tests are unnecessary, if not inappropriate, for evaluating reading comprehension interventions. We suggest that this view reflects a zeitgeist in which researcher-made (proximal) tests that align with the researchers' interventions are closely scrutinized and often devalued, whereas commercially developed…

Across America, an ongoing crisis of reading underachievement exists for many African American students; reading skill proficiency is not being achieved at levels on par with their grade-level peers. The problem addressed in this study was African American students who have not met the minimum passing score on state tests are placed in reading…

The purpose of this research was to analyze the performance of pupils (N = 6,023) who took part in Reading Recovery (RR) in England on a decoding test, the Phonics Screening Check (PSC), administered at the end of Year 1 when children are approximately 5 to 6 years of age. The data cover two academic years (2015/2016 and 2016/2017) and include…

Objectives: The two-fold purpose of this feasibility study was to determine if (a) self-regulated strategy development intervention would improve the writing skills of a child who uses cochlear implants and (b) if self-regulated strategy development intervention would improve the reading comprehension skills of a child who uses cochlear implants.…

Narration has been shown to be a foundational skill for literacy development in school-age children. Elementary teachers routinely conduct classroom lessons that focus on reading decoding and comprehension, but they rarely provide instruction in oral narration (Hall et al., 2021). This multisite randomized controlled trial was designed to…

To estimate the long-term effects of the Reading Recovery® intervention, a regression discontinuity design (RD) was implemented in a randomly selected sample of Reading Recovery schools during each year of the federally-funded i3 Scale-Up external evaluation (2011-2015) and also in one additional cohort during the 2016-2017 school year. Long-term…