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Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) provide instruction and intervention to all students in schools. However, when many students within a setting demonstrate reading difficulties, there is likely a tier 1 problem which makes it infeasible to implement tier 2 or tier 3 interventions with large numbers of students due to limited resources. The current study experimentally examined the effects of a brief class-wide intervention with two third-grade classrooms with large numbers of students demonstrating reading difficulties. The treatment group participated in partner reading with paragraph shrinking (i.e., summarizing) every school day for 2 weeks. The intervention resulted in significantly greater fluency growth compared to the control classroom. Moreover, the number of students in the treatment group who scored below the seasonal benchmark criterion fell from 12 out of 21 to 6 of 21 students. The control classroom had 13 out of 24 students who scored below the benchmark before and after the intervention. Results pointed to a promising practice for schools to enact when class-wide reading difficulties are evident.

Although it is common for researchers to assess implementation fidelity (IF) within the context of math intervention, IF assessments are often restricted to intervention adherence. Further, the degree to which IF influences observed outcomes is commonly ignored. The current study examined the relationship between three aspects of IF and the math performance of 1,340 grade 4 through 8 students who participated in an evidence-based math intervention. A series of multilevel regression models were fit to the data, including a final model with an indicator of intervention adherence, intervention delivery quality, and intervention engagement. A significant and positive association was observed between students' math performance and intervention engagement; however, a similar relationship was not observed when examining the impact of adherence and the quality of intervention delivery on students' math performance. Results are discussed in the context of implementation research for educational interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Many English language learners (ELLs) experience difficulties with basic English reading due in part to low language proficiency. The authors examined the relationship between English language proficiency and growth during reading interventions for ELLs. A total of 201 second- and third-grade students with a variety of home languages participated. The students were identified as needing a targeted intervention, because scores on the fall oral reading fluency screening measure fell below the benchmark criterion. Thus, all participating students received reading interventions approximately four times each week throughout the school year. Results indicated that those students identified in the lowest English proficiency stage on the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State (ACCESS) made the highest growth as indicated in the spring benchmark assessment, and the ACCESS score added negligible variance beyond baseline reading skills. Implications for practice and research are ...

The purpose of the present review was to evaluate the quality of the research and evidence base for representation of problems as a strategy to enhance the mathematical performance of students with learning disabilities and those at risk for mathematics difficulties. The authors evaluated 25 experimental and quasiexperimental studies according to the Gersten et al. (2005) guidelines for group research studies. Results suggest that the representation of mathematical problems as a strategy is an evidence-based practice based on the criteria set by Gersten et al. Implications for research are discussed.

Identifying a student's instructional level is necessary to ensure that students are appropriately challenged in reading. Informal reading inventories (IRIs) purport to assess the highest reading level at which a student can accurately decode and comprehend text. However, the use of IRIs in determining a student's instructional level has been questioned because of a lack of research. The current study examined the percentage of words read correctly with 64 second- and third-grade students while reading from texts at their instructional level as determined by an IRI. Students read for 1 min from three leveled texts that corresponded to their instructional level as measured by an IRI, and the percentage of words read correctly was recorded. The percentage read correctly correlated across the three books from r=.47 to r=.68 and instructional level categories correlated from tau=.59 to tau=.65. Percent agreement calculations showed that the categorical scores (frustration, instructional, and independent) for the three readings agreed approximately 67% to 70% of the time, which resulted in a kappa estimate of less than .50. Kappa coefficients of .70 are considered strong indicators of agreement. Moreover, more than half of the students with the lowest reading skills read at a frustration level when attempting to read books rated at their instructional level by an IRI. The current study questions how reliably and accurately IRIs identify students' instructional level for reading.