Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Reading Interventions for Students in the Primary Grades

By R. Gersten, Kelly S. Haymond, Rebecca Newman-Gonchar, Joseph A. Dimino, Madhavi Jayanthi. 2020

160 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This meta-analysis systematically reviewed the most up-to-date literature to determine the effectiveness of reading interventions on measures of word and pseudoword reading, reading comprehension, and passage fluency, and to determine the role intervention and study variables play in moderating the impacts for students at risk for reading difficulties in Grades 1–3. We used random-effects meta-regression models with robust variance estimates to summarize overall effects and to explore potential moderator effects. Results from a total of 33 rigorous experimental and quasi-experimental studies conducted between 2002 and 2017 that met WWC evidence standards revealed a significant positive effect for reading interventions on reading outcomes, with a mean effect size of 0.39 (SE = .04, p < .001, 95% CI [0.32, 0.46]). Moderator analyses demonstrated that mean effects varied across outcome domains and areas of instruction.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health, Statistics and Probability

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d09c683df9f20a4f253eb700b3736d3a8a53a976

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

Effective Programs in Elementary Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis (2021, background): “The theoretical base for tutoring draws on research in reading, which has long made extensive use of one-to-one and small group tutoring (see, e.g., Elbaum et al., 2000; Gersten et al., 2020; Slavin et al., 2011; Wanzek et al., 2016) as well as in mathematics (e.”
A Synthesis of Quantitative Research on Programs for Struggling Readers in Elementary Schools (2021, methodology): “The most recent review in this area was written by Gersten et al. (2020). This review, written under a contract from the U.S. Department of Education, used the inclusion criteria of the What Works Clearinghouse (2014), and included certified WWC reviewers on its authorship team.”