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…

Purpose: This study investigated the reading profiles of middle school Spanish-speaking emergent bilinguals (EBs) with significantly below grade level reading comprehension and whether these profiles varied in their reading comprehension performance over time. Method: Latent profile analyses were used to classify Grade 6 and 7 Hispanic EBs (n =…

This study examined the relation between middle school Dual Language Learners' (DLLs'; N = 413; M age = 11.66 years old; 87.1% Latino; female = 234, male = 179) reading comprehension skills and their teachers' (N = 32; M age = 36.53 years; 81.3% Caucasian; female = 27, male = 5) questioning practices across the school year. This study also…

This study aims to determine the levels of reading comprehension and morphological awareness in middle school students and to examine the dimensions of these two concepts by illustrating the existence of a relationship between them. The study group of the research conducted with the relational screening model consists of 1561 students in the 5th,…

Nationwide, middle school students are transitioning to high school without being able to read at grade level. This occurs despite schools adopting Response to Intervention systems to provide additional reading instruction to those who are reading below grade-level. This study examined students' posttest reading comprehension scores to determine…

Purpose: The current study takes a practical and theoretically grounded look at assessment of morphological knowledge and its potential to deepen understanding of how morphological knowledge supports reading comprehension for students with limited reading vocabulary. Specifically, we explore how different morphological skills support reading…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of reading modality (oral versus silent) and passage genre (narrative versus expository) on the reading comprehension of middle school students. A normative sample of sixth- and seventh-grade students (n = 175) read narrative and expository texts from the Qualitative Reading Inventory,…

Academic vocabulary is the specialized language used to communicate within academic settings. The Coxhead (2000) taxonomy is one such list that identifies 570 headwords representing academic vocabulary. Researchers have hypothesized that students possessing greater fluent reading skills are more likely to benefit from exposure to vocabulary due to…

The use of standardized assessments to monitor the success and productivity of public school systems in the United States is arguably a necessary component of state accountability systems. This research study is not intended to challenge the compulsion of accountability via testing, but the results of this study do raise questions regarding the…

Adolescent struggling readers (ASRs) with and without disabilities are often reported uniformly in the literature as disengaged from reading and lacking the motivation required to read. The present study tested, at the beginning of the academic year, reader self-perception of sixth grade ASRs (n = 71) enrolled in remedial reading courses using the…

Adolescent struggling readers (ASRs) with and without disabilities are often reported uniformly in the literature as disengaged from reading and lacking the motivation required to read. The present study tested, at the beginning of the academic year, reader self-perception of sixth grade ASRs (n = 71) enrolled in remedial reading courses using the…

This randomized study evaluated two evidence-based reading interventions with 121 middle school students who presented with reading fluency deficits. One intervention was teacher-directed and utilized numerous evidence-based strategies; the other intervention, the Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies for Small Groups Program, provided a…

This case study was designed to investigate the implementation of a cross-content academic vocabulary intervention in an urban school. Two aspects of the intervention were the focus of interest: student learning and teacher sensemaking. Participants included four content-area teachers and their sixth-grade students. Each week, students received…

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…