Empowering Schools to Implement Effective Research-Based Reading Remediation Delivers Long-Lasting Improvements to Children’s Reading Trajectories

Abstract

There is a wide gap between what research evidence identifies as effective reading intervention and what is currently offered in schools. This effectiveness study reports the results of a long-term research/school system partnership that is implementing reading intervention for children with reading difficulties in community schools. In Study 1, growth-curve analyses revealed significant long-term shifts in the reading trajectories of children ( n = 731) from Kindergarten to Grade 5 as a function of receiving the Empower™ Reading: Decoding and Spelling intervention. Long-term outcomes were higher in children who received intervention in Grade 2 than in Grade 3, supporting the benefit of earlier intervention. In Study 2, we compare reading outcomes before and after children participated in school system-led intervention (Empower™ Reading, n = 341) to results from previously reported researcher-led intervention and business-as-usual controls. Children in both school system-led and researcher-led interventions showed greater improvement than controls on standardized measures of decoding and reading comprehension. Among school system participants, greater gains were seen for those with stronger reading skills at pre-test. Findings demonstrate successful school system implementation of research-originated and validated reading intervention. Researcher/school system partnerships may be integral in closing the research–practice gap.