An investigation of the effects of an early reading intervention on students with disabilities and those at-risk of reading failure

Abstract

This study examined the effects of an early reading intervention with 652 students with disabilities and students at-risk of reading failure over the 2004-2005 school year. An intervention was put into place in a general education setting in Kindergarten (n=155), first (n=246) and second grade (n=251) that consisted of 30 minutes a day of explicit intensive instruction that focused on phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency in a small group setting. The intervention met the requirements of a Tier II intervention. After one school year of intervention, students who were at risk of reading failure or who were already identified as being eligible for special education services made significant progress toward predictive reading benchmarks as assessed by using DIBELS measures. The greatest gains were seen in kindergarten and first grade.This study provided evidence that the intervention was effective with students who were socio-economically at risk. Sixty-five to 80% of students in the study were eligible for free or reduced lunch and 31 to 54% were students with disabilities yet made significant progress toward reading benchmarks. The intervention seemed to ameliorate the `negative' effects of special education status or low socio-economic status. As urban schools struggle to meet AYP, this is an encouraging and welcomed development.