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Benefits for Remedial Education - Palo Verde High School Pilot Results
Location
Palo Verde High School is located in Tucson, Arizona. It is a magnet high school drawing its students from different socio-economic backgrounds. The principal selected My Reading Coach for use in their Remedial English program.
Environment
The existing Windows® computer network lab was used for the entire remedial English class. Students used My Reading Coach during their 30-minute Remedial English period. This lab was a subsection of the existing lab. Each computer was equipped with headphones and was attached to a file server that hosted the My Reading Coach - Version 2 Professional Edition.
Pilot Methodology
Teacher Training / Support and Feedback
The Remedial English teacher was given 1 day of training on how to effectively use the program. She was encouraged to print reports daily so that she could assist her students. In addition, the teacher was trained in the Read Like You Talk™ method for use with students for the suggested 12 comprehension lessons. Multi-Year Study
The pilot was a two-year pilot study.
The Remedial English teacher was given 1 day of training on how to effectively use the program. She was encouraged to print reports daily so that she could assist her students. In addition, the teacher was trained in the Read Like You Talk™ method for use with students for the suggested 12 comprehension lessons. Multi-Year Study
The pilot was a two-year pilot study.
Year 1: Student Selection and Pilot Period
20 Remedial English Students were selected for the initial pilot. Pre & post-testing was done using the Degrees of Reading Power® national standardized comprehension test (DRP).
Year 1: Pilot Results
Students spent an average of 40 hours on My Reading Coach during the pilot period, which lasted from September to April of the following year.
Performance Summary - Stanine Improvement: Students Completing the Program
Year 1: Detailed Performance Summary: Percentile Improvement
20 Students completed the program and were present for pre and post testing. On average students improved 12 percentile points. These students consisted of learning disabled and regular education students.
| Students with no pre- or post-test bar did not achieve the minimum basal score. |
Year 2: Student Selection and Pilot Period
The second year two groups of students were selected. 42 Remedial English students composed group 1 and 9 additional Remedial English students repeated the program a second time (these students had improved after the first year, but had not moved into the average range for their grade level). All students in the pilot were again pre- and post-tested with the Degrees of Reading Power® national standardized comprehension test (DRP).
Year 2: Pilot Results: Group 1 - First Time Users
Time Spent on My Reading Coach
Students spent an average of 40 hours on My Reading Coach during the pilot period, which lasted from September to April of the following year.
This chart shows the improvement of the 42 Remedial students who completed
My Reading Coach compared to the normal curve. It shows where the students
were before the pilot program and after completion. Post-test results
(magenta line) show significant gains in reading comprehension scores.
Students spent an average of 40 hours on My Reading Coach during the pilot period, which lasted from September to April of the following year.
| Average growth from stanine 3 (below average) to stanine 4 (average) |
Year 2 - Detailed Performance Summary: Group 1 - First Time Students
42 students completed the program and were present for both pre- and post-testing and are included in the results. It should be noted that even students below the 10th percentile made significant gains.| Initial Percentile Score | Percentile Gain |
|---|---|
| Above 60% (Stanine 6 and above) | 7 |
| 23 - 59% (Stanine 4 and 5) | 17 |
| 11 - 22% (Stanine 3) | 11 |
| Below 10% (Stanine 2 or Below) | 11 |
Conclusions Year 2 - Group 1 - First time users
My Reading Coach proved a cost-effective way to improve performance for students whose pre-test scores were 5th percentile or below. Even those students reading at stanine 6 or above benefited from using My Reading Coach.
Year 2: Pilot Results - Group 2 - Repeat Users
Conclusions Year 2 - Group 2 - Repeat Users
All but one student with very poor language skills benefited from repeating the program a second time moving into the average range of reading comprehension performance for their grade level.
