Doris Luft Baker

The Effectiveness of Reading Interventions for English Learners: A Research Synthesis

This article reviews published experimental studies from 2000 to 2012 that evaluated the effects of providing reading interventions to English learners who were at risk for experiencing academic difficulties, including students with learning disabilities. Criteria included: (a) the study was published in a peer-referred journal, (b) the study was an intervention for English learners at risk or with a learning disability in Grades K–12, (c) data were disaggregated by English learner status if all participants were not English learners, and (d) information about fidelity of implementation was reported. Twelve studies met these criteria. Results of seven studies conducted in kindergarten and first grade indicated significant moderate-to-large effect sizes (ES range, 0.58–0.91) for interventions targeting beginning reading skills. Findings in five of the 12 studies suggested significant moderate-to-large effects in reading or listening comprehension (ES range, 0.47–2.34). The interventions in these studies included explicit instruction, and 10 used published intervention programs. Moderator variables, such as group size, minutes of intervention, and type of personnel delivering the intervention, were not significant predictors of outcomes.

Connecting the Present to the Past: Furthering the Research on Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

The authors of this chapter review empirical studies that have been conducted in bilingual education to propose a future research agenda that incorporates the most recent evidence on the effectiveness of bilingual programs, advances in neuroscience, and the body of evidence of the benefits of being bilingual and biliterate. They first describe the historical and sociopolitical precedent of how bilingual education came to play a determinant role in U.S. education. Next, they summarize reviews that have been conducted examining the effects of bilingual education on the academic performance of English learners from 1985 until 2003. They then review the research on bilingual education since 2003. Although the majority of studies reviewed focused on reading, the authors also found studies that compared the effects of bilingual programs on other academic outcomes such as writing, science, and mathematics, inside and outside the United States. In addition, they address the benefits of bilingualism on cognition and discuss the research on cross-linguistic transfer to help the reader better understand the transfer of skills between the native language and the second language within the context of bilingual programs. They end the chapter with recommendations for future research.

Does Supplemental Instruction Support the Transition From Spanish to English Reading Instruction for First-Grade English Learners at Risk of Reading Difficulties?:

This study examines the effect of 30 min of small group explicit instruction on reading outcomes for first-grade Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) at risk of reading difficulties. Participants were 78 ELs from seven schools who were receiving Spanish only, or Spanish and English, whole group reading instruction in first grade. Students were rank-ordered within schools and then randomly assigned to a treatment condition (n = 39) or a comparison condition (n = 39). Students in the treatment condition received instruction on transition elements that supported their transfer of skills from Spanish to English. Students in the comparison condition received Business as Usual instruction from a variety of commercially available programs. Findings indicated that ELs in both conditions made significant gains from pretest to posttest on all reading outcomes even though instruction in the treatment condition focused significantly more on higher order skills (i.e., vocabulary, comprehension, and transition elements) whereas instruction in the comparison condition focused significantly more on lower order skills (i.e., phonics, word work, and sentence reading). Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Exploring the Cross-Linguistic Transfer of Reading Skills in Spanish to English in the Context of a Computer Adaptive Reading Intervention.

ABSTRACT We explore the potential of a computer-adaptive decoding game in Spanish to increase the decoding skills and oral reading fluency in Spanish and English of bilingual students. Participants were 78 first-grade Spanish-speaking students attending bilingual programs in five classrooms in Texas. Classrooms were randomly assigned to the treatment (i.e., where students played Graphogame Spanish) for 16 weeks for ten minutes per day (n = 3) versus business as usual instruction (n = 2). Results indicate that students at some risk on Spanish pseudoword reading appeared to benefit the most from playing the game. Analysis of gains suggests a potentially small, but meaningful educational effect of the game on Spanish oral reading fluency and English pseudoword reading when taking Spanish decoding skills at pretest into account. Students indicated that they enjoyed playing the game, and that the game helped them improve their reading skills. Teachers perceived the game as an engaging tool for students to use during small-group instruction or during independent time in a Response-to-Intervention approach. We discuss our mixed results in the context of using computer-adaptive games to improve the academic outcomes of bilingual students.

Understanding and Implementing the Common Core Vocabulary Standards in Kindergarten.

T EA C H IN G E xc ep ti on al C hi ld re n , V ol . 47 , N o. 5 , pp . 26 4 – 27 1. C op yr ig ht 2 01 5 T he A ut ho r( s) . D O I: 1 0. 11 77 /0 04 00 59 91 55 80 02 8 Mr. Martinez, a kindergarten teacher in a large, suburban school district, is preparing to teach a reading lesson from his core reading program. His state has adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), and he knows he will need to address the English language arts standards in his instruction and ensure that all students in his class are ready for first grade and beyond. Mr. Martinez is worried about how to address the CCSS in a class wherein more than 50% of his students are English learners, approximately 20% of students are at risk or have been identified with a learning disability, and most of the students have very low language and vocabulary knowledge, given the school’s location in a highpoverty neighborhood where 90% of the students are eligible for free and reduced lunch services. Mr. Martinez has received professional development on how to implement the CCSS in general, but it is still not clear to him how he can follow the CCSS and at the same time address the needs of his students in the area of vocabulary and language development. Moreover, Mr. Martinez knows that word knowledge is critical for addressing the vocabulary and reading comprehension standards of the CCSS, and he appropriately believes that improving his students’ vocabulary will be a very important goal toward improving their reading comprehension. He sees how word knowledge can build thinking skills (Block, Gambrell, & Pressley, 2002), and it can determine how students understand texts, define themselves for others, and frame the way they see the world (Pinker, 2007). However, Mr. Martinez also knows what it feels like to read a story aloud and have several students struggle with vocabulary and the background knowledge required to understand the story. He remembers the countless times spent explaining abstract vocabulary and backtracking to help his students fill in vocabulary gaps. Finally, although Mr. Martinez wants to teach vocabulary effectively and efficiently, he has enough experience teaching to know that planning and integrating vocabulary instruction into lessons from his core reading program can be timeconsuming. His teaching day is short, the demands from implementing the CCSS are high, and his students need substantial support. Mr. Martinez is not alone in his concerns; many other teachers and schools do not have much time to address all the CCSS, particularly those standards that are related to vocabulary (Cuticelli, Coyne, Ware, Oldham, & Rattan, 2014; Nelson, Dole, & Hosp, 2012). As Mr. Martinez flips through the pages of his lesson guide, he tries to connect what he has learned about the CCSS to his reading program. Figure 1 illustrates the type of questions Mr. Martinez still has.

Differences in Growth Reading Patterns for at-Risk Spanish-Monolingual Children as a Function of a Tier 2 Intervention

The present study compares the patterns of growth of beginning reading skills (i.e., phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension) of Spanish speaking monolingual students who received a Tier 2 reading intervention with students who did not receive the intervention. All the students in grades K-2 were screened at the beginning of the year to confirm their risk status. A quasi-experimental longitudinal design was used: the treatment group received a supplemental program in small groups of 3 to 5 students, for 30 minutes daily from November to June. The control group did not receive it. All students were assessed three times during the academic year. A hierarchical linear growth modeling was conducted and differences on growth rate were found in vocabulary in kindergarten (p < .001; variance explained = 77.0%), phonemic awareness in kindergarten (p < .001; variance explained = 43.7%) and first grade (p < .01; variance explained = 15.2%), and finally we also find significant growth differences for second grade in oral reading fluency (p < .05; variance explained = 15.1%) and retell task (p < .05; variance explained = 14.5%). Children at risk for reading disabilities in Spanish can improve their skills when they receive explicit instruction in the context of Response to Intervention (RtI). Findings are discussed for each skill in the context of implementing a Tier 2 small group intervention within an RtI approach. Implications for practice in the Spanish educational context are also discussed for children who are struggling with reading.

Review of Single Subject Research Examining the Effectiveness of Interventions for At-Risk English Learners: REVIEW OF SINGLE SUBJECT RESEARCH FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS

We review published single subject design (SSD) studies that examine the effects of interventions for English learners at-risk or with learning disabilities. Results of our literature search yielded 10 studies, five in reading, one in reading and behavior, and four in mathematics that met our inclusion criteria. Seven studies targeted Spanish-speaking English learners, and three studies included students who spoke other languages than English and/or English only students. Two studies in mathematics included native language instruction. Six studies included English learners in second grade and above, and one study included high school students. We were able to calculate effect sizes (Hedges g) for eight of the 10 studies. Findings indicated a significant effect of the intervention for 12 of the 18 dependent variables measured. SSD methodology has the potential to help researchers and practitioners better understand what interventions work for English learners, and under what circumstances.

Racing Against the Vocabulary Gap: Matthew Effects in Early Vocabulary Instruction and Intervention

We investigated whether individual differences in overall receptive vocabulary knowledge measured at the beginning of the year moderated the effects of a kindergarten vocabulary intervention that supplemented classroom vocabulary instruction. We also examined whether moderation would offset the benefits of providing Tier-2 vocabulary intervention within a multitiered-system-of-support (MTSS) or response-to-intervention framework. Participants included students from two previous studies identified as at risk for language and learning difficulties who were randomly assigned in clusters to receive small-group vocabulary intervention in addition to classroom vocabulary instruction (n = 825) or to receive classroom vocabulary instruction only (n = 781). A group of not-at-risk students (n = 741) who received classroom vocabulary instruction served as a reference group. Initial vocabulary knowledge measured at pretest moderated the impact of intervention on experimenter-developed measures of expressive vocabulary learning and listening comprehension favoring students with higher initial vocabulary knowledge. Tier-2 intervention substantially counteracted the Matthew effect for target word learning. Intervention effects on listening comprehension depended on students’ initial vocabulary knowledge. Implications present benefits and challenges of supporting vocabulary learning within an MTSS framework.