Remedial Reading Programs and the

Impacts on Struggling Readers

Scott Schnitzer
Background Information
- Regent Park Scholars Academy (charter school through National Heritage
Academies)
- Detroit, MI
- K-8 building with 710 students
- Struggle with finding a source of instruction that helps target bottom 25%
- 2016-2017: Reading Mastery and Corrective Reading
- Program was promoted as a way to boost student scores by one and a half to
two school years if followed with fidelity
- Currently outperforming DPS schools but scores are still low
Background Information
Corrective Reading and Reading Mastery

- Corrects misunderstandings and missing skills of students well below grade

level
- Step-by-step directions and what to say are given for the teacher
- Corrective reading for 4th grade and up
- Reading Mastery for Kindergarten through 3rd
- Lessons range from identifying letters and sounds to memorizing facts and
recalling and using information to answer questions
- When followed with fidelity, program can grow students
upwards of 1.5-2 years in a given school year
Background
Remedial reading programs:

Torgesen, J. et al., (2007) found four key findings in their study. “1.) The interventions improved
some reading scores. 2.) The interventions did not improve PSSA scores. 3.) Younger students
benefited more. 4.) The interventions narrowed some reading gaps” (p. 14).

- By implementing this new program, Regent Park will be able to meet the goals set by the
leadership team and teachers.
- Looking to see the impacts of the program on self-efficacy and student scores of bottom 25%.
- Used NWEA data, interviews, and surveys to analyze data
- Program integrates all grade levels to target students at their level
Research Questions

1. What effect does a remedial program have on developing the skills of

struggling readers?

2. How does self-efficacy affect struggling readers?

3. What impact does implementing reading workshop at an at-risk elementary

school have on struggling readers?

Method of Study
Subjects:

- Students from grades 3-5 (250 students)

- All African-American students
- Most students 2-3 grade levels below their actual grade, some students 2-3 grade levels
above their actual grade level
- 143 boys, 127 girls
- Teachers from grades K-5 (30 teachers)
- Teachers, paras, interventionists
- Parents of students in grades 3-5 (250 parents)
- Selected at random during conference time
Method of Study
Research Design

- Program began in 2016-2017

- Pretesting took place in September 2016 to determine students’ placements
- Surveys were administered in January and February 2017 to check in on the
feeling of the program, self-esteem, reading interests
- Surveys were administered in April of 2017 to measure confidence in the
program and overall growth
- May 2017 collected NWEA data for reading for K-5, with a focus on 3-5
Method of Study
Tools and Data:

- Surveys
- Tracked data on spreadsheets and broke into percentages
- Interviews
- Qualitative data to compare to survey numbers
- NWEA reading data
- Used growth/decline numbers to compare to results of interviews and surveys
- Used as primary tool to gauge effectiveness of reading program
Results
NWEA:

120% growth: TARGET

9 classes (3 sections from each grade 3-5)

- ALL 9 classes saw growth in reading

- 1 class 50-75%
- 1 class 76-99%
- 7 classes 100%+
- For the first time in a couple of years, Regent Park saw the schoolwide
average reading growth reach 100%+
Results
Surveys

1) Parents
- 250 distributed, 150 responses
- 75% said they saw growth in reading in their students
- Split 50/50 on who knew or didn’t know about reading program
1) Students
- 250 distributed, 212 responses
- 85% said they were confident they grew in reading
- 55% said they enjoy reading
1) Teachers
- 30 teachers, 30 responses
- Concerns stood out: Absenteeism, class sizes
Results
Interviews:

1) Principal
- Focused on consistency and implications for following year
- Mixed groups and impacts on self-esteem
1) Dean
- Focused on consistency errors and flexibility
- Fidelity was also discussed
1) Teacher
- Focused on changing the use of the program
- Many variables to consider when training and implementing
Points to Consider
- By reaching students at a younger age, confidence levels can be changed.
- Noticeable in data results, primarily NWEA
- Varying options on how to implement the use of the program has its own
impacts on the data.
- Variety of implementation was noted and is being changed for next year.
- Intervention programs used should be in a contained classroom.
- Flexibility groups were all given instruction in self-contained classrooms.
- Data and results support theme of remedial reading programs do improve the
skills of struggling readers.
- Data numbers will continue to see growth, if options are utilized.
- 55% of students enjoyed reading for pleasure.
Conclusion
- Achievement gap in reading is closing.
- NWEA and M-STEP data both have seen tremendous growth.
- Implementing with various methods will help increase student achievement.
- Intervention tool and resource for ELA
- The program is effective and should be continued for the coming school year.
- Various methods to change, but still is being used for the current year.
- Self-contained classroom implementation helped growth in students.
- Program should continue to be taught by the teacher in the classroom with less focus on
moving students from class to class.
Recommendations
- Continue to develop teachers on how to increase self-efficacy of students.
- Celebrate successes with students.
- Make successes visible in the school.
- More training and hands-on learning is necessary for teachers.
- Train and provide feedback on growth and areas of improvement
- Adapt the tool to the students when possible
- Continue monitoring and assessing students
- Address difficulties and reassess
- Continue what has been taking place to ensure same results and better are acheived.
Implications for Future Research
Building reading stamina in students

- Digging in and researching about strategies and ways to improve efficacy will
boost confidence
- Increasing self-efficacy could lead to even higher results in reading.

Address the gap in middle school reading and struggling readers

- Students need the most help when preparing for high school.
- Many programs to choose from and ways to address the need.
References
Torgesen, J., Myers, D., Schirm, A., Stuart, E., Vartivarian, S., Mansfield, W., . . . Haan, C. (2006). National assessment of title I:

Interim report. volume II: Closing the reading gap: First year findings from a randomized trial of four reading interventions for

striving readers. ().ED Pubs, P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/docview/62094887?accountid=12924
Contact Information

Scott Schnitzer

Email: saschnit@gmail.com