title: High School Students With Reading Comprehension Difficulties: Results of a Randomized Control Trial of a Two-Year Reading Intervention.
abstract: A 2-year, randomized control trial with 9th to 10th grade students with significant reading problems was provided for 50 minutes a day in small groups. Comparison students were provided an elective class and treatment students the reading intervention. Students were identified as demonstrating reading difficulties through failure on their state accountability test and were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions and a business as usual (BAU) condition: reading without dropout prevention, reading with dropout prevention, dropout prevention without reading, or a BAU condition. Findings from the 2-year reading intervention (reading with and without dropout prevention combined and BAU) are reported in this article. Students in reading treatment compared to students in BAU demonstrated significant gains on reading comprehension (effect size = .43), and improved reading was associated with better grades in social studies. Findings from this study provide a rationale for further implementation and investigation of intensive intervention for high school students with reading difficulties.
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, USA srvaughn@austin.utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vaughn
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, USA.
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland, College Park, USA.
authors.forename: Jade
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wexler
authors.affiliation: Saint Louis University, MO, USA.
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Vaughn
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, USA.
authors.forename: Anna-Mária
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Fall
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Schnakenberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D032882:Comprehension; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004519:Education, Special / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: comprehension; content acquisition; high school; intensive reading; intervention