This simultaneous replication single-case design study investigated a vocabulary and main idea intervention with an aspect of text choice provided to students with autism spectrum disorder. Five middle school students with autism spectrum disorder participated in two instructional groups taught by school-based personnel. Results were initially mixed. These results were followed by upward and stable trends, indicating a functional relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Social validity measures indicated that students appreciated the opportunity to make choices on text selection.

This paper reviews findings from four research syntheses that report the effects of academic language and/or reading interventions on language and reading outcomes for English learners who have or are at risk for learning difficulties. Studies included in the syntheses varied in research design and addressed multiple areas of reading and language. There was disagreement between syntheses as to the extent of research evidence in favor of particular instructional practices. For ELs with learning difficulties in kindergarten and first grade, however, there was strong consensus that multiple‐component reading instruction that includes phonological awareness and phonics instruction is associated with improved word reading outcomes. It may also be beneficial to provide oral language, vocabulary, and reading comprehension instruction; nevertheless, there is a need for future research on instructional interventions that aim to improve reading comprehension outcomes for this population.

This systematic review synthesizes fluency intervention research for struggling readers in Grades 6 through 12 from January 2006 to October 2019. The search yielded 17 studies examining reading fluency and comprehension outcomes. Most studies examined repeated reading (RR) interventions to improve reading fluency for struggling readers at these grade levels, resulting in improved fluency but few positive effects on reading comprehension outcomes, similar to trends observed in prior systematic reviews. Reading connected text with an equivalent word count to word counts of RR sessions did not result in increased reading fluency, a finding aligned with a prior synthesis. Few studies used a fluent reader as a model prior to RRs, despite previous support for modeling within fluency interventions.

A majority of reading-related intervention studies aiming to remediate struggling readers’ reading outcomes assess student performance immediately following the conclusion of an intervention to determine intervention effects. Few studies collect follow-up data to measure the long-term sustainability of treatment effects. Hence, the aim of the current synthesis was to examine follow-up intervention effects of reading interventions involving adolescent struggling readers in Grades 6 to 12. Our literature search yielded only 10 studies that reported follow-up data for intervention participants, which highlights the dearth of intervention research that examines sustainability of intervention effects. Of the 10 included studies, the weighted mean effect size for all reading outcome measures was gw = 0.78 at immediate posttest and gw = 0.27 at follow-up, in favor of treatment group students. Although the magnitude of difference between treatment and control groups diminished at follow-up time, a comparison of treatment group students’ immediate posttest and follow-up scores showed that students mostly maintained gains made during intervention at follow-up time points.

No abstract