Assessing the promise of a supplemental reading intervention for at-risk first grade students in a public school setting

Abstract

In this exploratory quasi-experimental case study, we assessed the promise of a yearlong supplemental reading intervention with a small pilot group of at-risk first grade readers in an elementary school setting. Using standardized measures of reading proficiency, we found that after 47 hours of one-on-one tutoring instruction, students read significantly more proficiently than did non-tutored students in a matched group of first grade peers in the same school. These results are encouraging in light of literacy research documenting the impact of one-on-one tutoring by qualified tutors of at-risk early grade readers. We used lessons learned from this pilot study to help inform and direct the necessary revisions and refinements of future reading interventions with the goal of building the school’s capacity to support the literacy development of at-risk readers so that they can catch up with their typically developing peers.

Keywords

• Response to intervention
• early literacy instruction
• one-on-one tutoring
• at-risk readers