Although research suggests that certain cognitive functions predict the likelihood of intervention response for students who receive Tier 2 instruction through a response to intervention framework, researchers know less about cognitive predictors of response to Tier 3 instruction. This study measured 2nd and 3rd graders' performance on 7 cognitive…

With an increasing percentage of schools moving toward approaches to data-based instructional problem-solving and early remediation of learning difficulties, the development and execution of intervention plans often warrants the pragmatic question: How intensive should an intervention be so that it is effective, while also feasible and time…

Approximately 40% of U.S. fourth-grade students are nonfluent readers. In response to the need for fluency-based instructional programs for elementary-aged students, the Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) Program was developed by integrating eight evidence-based fluency-building instructional strategies into a systematic…

The Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) Program was developed by integrating eight evidence-based fluency-building instructional strategies into a systematic program that can be feasibly implemented and accessed for free by all educators. This study examined the effects of HELPS when implemented by teachers with low-performing…

This study compared children's Spanish reading performance across 2 reading intervention conditions: small group versus individual (teacher-student). Six second-grade Costa Rican students with low Spanish reading ability participated in the study. An alternating-treatments design was used to compare the relative effectiveness of the 2…

Although reading fluency is one of the five essential early-reading skills students must develop, many elementary-aged students in the United States do not read age-appropriate material fluently. As such, small-group interventions are practical and often more time efficient than individualized interventions aimed to address this problem. However,…

Reading fluency is a critical component of effective reading instruction for students of early elementary age. However, national data suggest that 40% of U.S. fourth-grade students are nonfluent readers. Implementing evidence-based, time-efficient, and procedurally standardized instructional strategies may help address this problem. This study…

Teacher perceptions about students' academic abilities are important for several reasons (e.g., instructional decision making, special education entitlement decisions). Not surprisingly, researchers have investigated the accuracy of teachers' decisions. Although some data reveal that teachers are relatively good judges of academic performance,…

This study evaluated the effects of a fluency-based reading program with 15 second and third grade students and 15 matched controls. Gains in oral reading fluency on untrained CBM probes were evaluated using a matched-pairs group-comparison design, whereas immediate and two-day retention gains in oral reading fluency on trained passages were…