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A Proposal to Research Academic Effectiveness of the Reading Mastery Program in School-Aged Children Angela Chiasson University of Calgary, Alberta APSY 605

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Introduction A concern for many reading support professionals is selecting a proven literacy program to help with instruction. There are many programs available and the difficulty is choosing one that addresses the diverse needs of all of the students. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (2001) reported that 37% of fourthgrade students cannot even read at basic level, and only 32% read at of above a proficient level. I propose to review available literature and conduct an ______ analysis to discover if this intervention program is more effective than regular inclass teacher instruction. Some schools have implemented the Reading Mastery Program to foster reading. This program encompasses a systematic, structured, teacher-guided approach. The Reading Mastery Program is said to be beneficial to students of all ability levels. It is offered as a full year curriculum and this program begins by teaching phonemic

awareness and sound-letter correspondence and progresses to word and passage reading, vocabulary development, comprehension, and building oral reading fluency. Lessons are designed to be fast-paced and interactive. Students are grouped by similar reading level, based on program placement tests. The program includes placement assessments and a continuous monitoring component.
Objectives I propose to review the a Hypothesis Students who are in the Reading Mastery intervention group (experimental) will demonstrate higher literacy skills when compared to the group that does not receive the Reading Mastery intervention (control). Sample/Participants The sample will be 40 students in Grade K-6 who have been targeted as having reading difficulties. An analysis of data gathered will provide a basis for stratification along the following variables: sex, age, race/ethnicity, geographic region and socioeconomic status. The region will be the Chehalis First Nations Community. All students from the classrooms will be selected and randomly placed in either the experimental or control group. Once the group has been selected, during a 1.5-hour block each day, students will either receive Reading Mastery instruction (experimental) or in-class regular instruction (control). Tests & Measures The independent variable is the intervention or non-intervention group. The dependent variable is the literacy success.

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The Reading Fluency and Passage Comprehension subtests (tests 2 & 9, respectively) from the Woodcock Johnson Achievement Test-3rd edition (WJ-III, Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) will be utilized to measure the reading fluency and comprehension skills of all 120 participants (control and experimental groups). Participants skills will be measured as a pre-test in order to identify a baseline, and then measured once again at the end of the 5-month intervention period. Research Design The present research proposal will consist of a quantitative experimental design that will include 40 participants who are currently struggling with reading comprehension within the regular classroom. Students will be randomly divided into two equal groups of 20. The experimental group, consisting of 20 students will receive 5 months of small group Reading Mastery Program instruction for 1.5 hours per day for 5 days a week. The control group will not participate in the Reading Mastery Program, but will receive regular classroom literacy instruction for 1.5 hours per day for 5 days a week, for five months. The experimental and control group will be administered the AIMS web CBM and the comprehension subtest from the WJ-III (2001) for the posttest at the end of the five month period. Procedures The pre-test will consist of screening students from grades K-6 to determine if they are fluency or comprehension difficulties Data Analysis References Kamil, M. L., Borman, G. D., Dole, J., Kral, C. C., Salinger, T., Torgesen, J. (2008). Improving adolescent literacy: Effective classroom and intervention practices, IES Practice Guide. National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/adlit_pg_082608.pdf Mather, N., Wendling, B., Woodcock, R. W. (2001). Essential of WJ III Tests of Achievement Assessment. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Riverside Publishing. National Assessment of Educational Progress (2001). The nations report card: Fourth grade reading. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/help/sitemap.asp Schieffer, C., Marchand-Martella, N. E., Martella, R., Simonsen, F.L., & WaldronSolfer, K. M. (2001). An analysis of the Reading Mastery Program: effective components and research review. Journal of Direct Instruction. Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 87-119. Retrieved from http://pdfcast.org/pdf/ananalysis-of-the-reading-mastery-program-effective-components

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Woodcock, R.W, McGrew, K.S., Mather, N. (2001). Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement. Rolling Meadows, IL: Riverside Publishing.