For each elementary building as well as the district as a whole, we calculated the effect size of a specific reading intervention program. Below showcases the overall effect size growth of students receiving one particular program (4-5x/week for 45 minute sessions in a small group with a special education teacher, paraprofessional or reading interventionist). The calculations were based on scores the students' obtained at the beginning and end of the school year on the Scholastic Reading Inventory (Lexile) and aimswebPlus Oral Reading Fluency (words read correctly per minute) benchmark.
Why? Research suggests that children with disabilities who did not receive special education actually outperformed their counterparts that did (the average effect size for special education is -0.12 according to Kavale and Forness, 1999). However, large effect sizes for children identified as SLD were found for somewhat less commonly used instructional approaches such as explicit comprehension instruction, direct instruction and mnemonic strategies. We set out to determine if this was true in our Resource Rooms and to provide some meaningful feedback on whether or not some of our instructional practices were making a difference, or enough of a difference, on student achievement.
What? Effect sizes are a useful method for comparing results on different measures, over time or between groups on a scale that allows multiple comparisons. It allows relative comparisons about various influences on student achievement. In Visible Learning, John Hattie (2009) reviewed more than 800 meta-analyses of 50,000 research articles, about 150,000 effect sizes and about 240 million students. Hattie suggests using the average effect size in education (0.40), as the ‘hinge-point’ for identifying which instructional practices are and which instructional practices are not effective (rather than considering anything with an effect size above zero as “enhancing achievement”).
How? Standard deviation is a measure of how spread out a set of values is. An effect size (d), which is a unit of standard deviation, is simply a way to quantify the difference between two groups, or in our case, the difference between a student’s performance at the beginning and end of the 2015-16 school year. For my assigned elementary school building, we calculated the effect size of Corrective Reading on students with a current IEP. The calculations were based on scores the students obtained at the beginning and end of the 2015-16 school year on the Scholastic Reading Inventory (Lexile) and DIBELS Next Oral Reading Fluency (median words read correctly per minute) benchmark.
Why? Research suggests that children with disabilities who did not receive special education actually outperformed their counterparts that did (the average effect size for special education is -0.12 according to Kavale and Forness, 1999). However, large effect sizes for children identified as SLD were found for somewhat less commonly used instructional approaches such as explicit comprehension instruction, direct instruction and mnemonic strategies. We set out to determine if this was true in our Resource Rooms and to provide some meaningful feedback on whether or not some of our instructional practices were making a difference, or enough of a difference, on student achievement.
What? Effect sizes are a useful method for comparing results on different measures, over time or between groups on a scale that allows multiple comparisons. It allows relative comparisons about various influences on student achievement. In Visible Learning, John Hattie (2009) reviewed more than 800 meta-analyses of 50,000 research articles, about 150,000 effect sizes and about 240 million students. Hattie suggests using the average effect size in education (0.40), as the ‘hinge-point’ for identifying which instructional practices are and which instructional practices are not effective (rather than considering anything with an effect size above zero as “enhancing achievement”).
How? Standard deviation is a measure of how spread out a set of values is. An effect size (d), which is a unit of standard deviation, is simply a way to quantify the difference between two groups, or in our case, the difference between a student’s performance at the beginning and end of the 2015-16 school year. For my assigned elementary school building, we calculated the effect size of Corrective Reading on students with a current IEP. The calculations were based on scores the students obtained at the beginning and end of the 2015-16 school year on the Scholastic Reading Inventory (Lexile) and DIBELS Next Oral Reading Fluency (median words read correctly per minute) benchmark.
With coaching and support, could those results be replicated? And are they sustainable?
Then, we began to wonder... if we could get those kinds of results with students with disabilities... what kind of impact would these programs make for our students that require a Tiered Intervention within our MTSS framework but do not have a disability.