Effectiveness of Paraeducator-Supplemented Individual Instruction

Abstract

A total of 46 children in Grades 2 and 3 with low word-level skills were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups that received supplemental phonics-based reading instruction. One group received intervention October through March (21.5 hours), and one group served as a control from October through March and later received intervention March through May (17.5 hours). Paraeducators trained in a standard treatment protocol provided individual instruction for 30 min per day, 4 days per week. At the March posttest, the early treatment (ET; n = 23) group outperformed the controls (late treatment, LT; n = 20) on reading accuracy and passage fluency. Across both groups, second graders outperformed third graders on these same measures. At the 3-month follow-up, the ET group showed no evidence of decline in reading accuracy, passage fluency, or words spelled; however, 3rd-grade ET students had significantly higher spelling skills compared to 2nd graders. The LT group demonstrated significant growth during their intervention in reading accuracy and spelling, but not passage fluency. When we compared the ET and LT groups on their gains per instructional hour, we found that the ET group made significantly greater gains than the LT group across all 3 measures. The results support the value of paraeducator-supplemented reading instruction for students below grade level in word identification and reading fluency.

The impact of teaching assistants on improving pupils’ academic achievement in mainstream schools: a review of the literature

“…(3) The support offered was targeted at pupils who had an identified problem in basic attainments, either early literacy skills (Grek, Mathes, and Torgesen 2003;Miller 2003;Savage, Carless, and Stuart 2003;Carless 2005, 2008;O'Shaughnessy and Swanson 2000;Wang and Algozzine 2008;Vadasy, Sanders, and Peyton 2006;Vadasy, Sanders, and Tudor 2007), literacy and numeracy (Welch et al 1995), numeracy (Muijs and Reynolds 2003) or a more general language delay (Boyle et al 2007). (4) The size of intervention and comparison/control groups varied from 15 (O'Shaughnessy and Swanson 2000) to approximately 180 (Muijs and Reynolds 2003) with the majority ranging from 17 to 33 in each group.…”

“…The studies by Savage and colleagues (Savage, Carless, and Stuart 2003;Carless 2005, 2008) and Vadasy and colleagues (Vadasy, Sanders, and Peyton 2006;Vadasy, Sanders, and Tudor 2007) have each been grouped together as one study since they refer to the same data set but report on slightly different aspects in each paper.…”

Impact of the Script in a Supplemental Reading Program on Instructional Opportunities for Student Practice of Specified Skills

“…In the Vadasy et al (2006Vadasy et al ( , 2007 studies, two key factors resulted in the success of the paraeducators. First, paraeducators were provided with explicit training, feedback, and ongoing coaching.…”

Efficacy of Supplemental Phonics-Based Instruction for Low-Skilled First Graders: How Language Minority Status and Pretest Characteristics Moderate Treatment Response

“…Sanders, & Tudor, 2007). Although pretest word reading ability was positively associated with posttest scores, treatment effects were generally not moderated by pretest word reading.…”