Lucas, Patricia Jane; (2004) Responses to a school-based literacy intervention for poor readers in junior school: Evaluating academic and attitudinal impact, using a RCT methodology. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The acquisition of reading and writing is a key outcome of education; poor literacy is associated with difficulties throughout life. Many remedial reading programmes have been developed to address poor reading in school, but there has been a paucity of methodologically rigorous evaluations of such interventions. Where they have taken place, evaluations have been limited to either progress in reading and reading related skill, or to affective aspects of literacy. A small group intervention was introduced for children with very poor reading skills entering Year 3 (age 7/8 years) in a London school. A rigorous methodology (Randomised Controlled Trial, using waiting list controls) was employed to examine the effectiveness of the intervention on both achievement and affective dimensions. Little change was observed. Significant change was seen only in reading accuracy, and here the effect of the intervention was small (accounting for only 6% of the variance). There was some evidence that the children in the intervention group became less positive about books over the period of the intervention. A comparison between immediate and delayed (i.e. waiting list control) intervention groups showed that timing of the intervention did not affect progress. However, a significant proportion of children who were assigned to waiting did not go on to receive the intervention, either because of movement to other schools or because teachers' assessment of need changed. Follow-up data (up to 30 months post baseline) demonstrated that reading problems persisted in this group as a whole. An additional pilot study of functional literacy assessment was employed. Although the group identified as poor readers at age 7 years remained poor readers at age 9 years they were no less able, nor less likely to accurately follow written instructions to complete a cooking task.

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