The purpose of this study was to study the impact on student performance due to participation in the Catapult Learning Intervention program in the Mathematics and Reading services offered in a religious non-public school system in the Northeastern United States from grades 6-8. Student scaled scores from the NWEA MAP assessments administered at…

This U.S. study evaluated the effects of a reading intervention for emergent bilingual students with significant reading difficulties in Grades 6 and 7 within a multisite randomized controlled trial. Emergent bilinguals were randomized to a researcher-provided intervention (n = 171) or business-as-usual comparison condition (n = 169). Results on a…

Reading is a complex task that requires cognitive and emotional engagement. The integrated instruction approach, incorporating strategy instruction and literature circles, was developed to improve Chinese students' reading comprehension, reading motivation, and strategy use in reading fiction books. The current study adopted a quasi-experimental…

This exploratory study was designed to evaluate the interplay of students' rate and comprehension in independent silent reading of accessible text, within the frameworks of the Simple View of Reading and the RAND Reading Study Group. In the first phase, 61 sixth graders were given a reading test (GRADE), a motivation questionnaire, and an…

The purpose of this study was to investigate Spanish-speaking multilingual learner (MLL) students' long-term academic outcomes after participation in an early childhood education (ECE) program with English instruction. The study included 359 Spanish-speaking MLLs who qualified for Free and Reduced Lunch from Grade 1 to Grade 6. Participants…

This study aims to investigate the influence of story creation on young EFL learners' reading performance. Action research was adopted to examine the effects of two different story reading projects in a library setting in Taiwan. Each project comprised a group of 19 young EFL learner from Grades 4 to 6 (aged 10-12). The first group's activities…

We published our first set of Connections Academy efficacy reports containing independently assured efficacy statements in 2018. We went on to build on that body of research, and updated our reporting with new findings in 2021. Our latest study compared Connections Academy students' state test scores in reading and math with students in…

This study compared the effects of two brief prereading instructional practices--hands-on activities and prior knowledge activation--on sixth-graders' intrinsic motivation for reading a text and reading comprehension. Both hands-on activities and prior knowledge activation substantially improved reading comprehension relative to a control…

Vocabulary knowledge is a crucial element of reading comprehension. Academic vocabulary poses particular challenges for students and should be a focus of instruction, particularly for students from diverse language backgrounds. This study was part of a larger literacy in social studies intervention aimed at increasing students' reading…

This study investigated the relationship between listening comprehension and reading comprehension to determine if environmental factors might be contributing to a possible change in the equalization age for these two comprehension modalities from what was theorized by Thomas Sticht. The study employed a counterbalanced design to measure the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of reading skill and reading modality (oral versus silent) on reading comprehension. A normative sample of sixth-grade students (N = 74) read texts aloud and silently and then answered questions about what they read. Skill in word reading fluency was assessed by the Test of Word Reading…

Theatre instructional techniques, including reader's theatre and process drama teaching strategies, have been employed as instructional strategies in classrooms to enhance reading comprehension and vocabulary learning in students. In this era of increasing accountability for educational outcomes, quantifying what, if any, impact such instructional…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of teaching daily math word problems in a 3-6th grade ELL classroom on math vocabulary use and math word problem and place value comprehension. This study sought to answer the following research question: "How does direct instruction of mathematical operation keywords through teaching…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using group story-mapping of English as a second language (ESL) on students with learning disability while reading comprehension. The researcher focused on a specific graphic organizer in this study, called group story-mapping. This strategy required students with learning disabilities…

We used a design-based research model to examine a historical literacy intervention in Grade 6 classrooms. This article describes the results across 2 separate instructional cycles and for students grouped into 4 categories: (a) high-achieving students (n = 23 and n = 24 for Cycle I and Cycle II, respectively), (b) average-achieving students (n =…