The Effects of a Reading Intervention Class on Regular Education High School Students Who Struggle with Learning

The purpose of this study was to examine a reading initiative that was implemented with struggling 9^th grade regular education students at a high school in northern Virginia. Pre and post tests of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT), 4^th Edition, were used to measure the reading performance of students enrolled in a reading intervention class compared to those in a control group. Attendance and discipline data were also collected and compared. Discussions with students enrolled in the reading class and representative artifacts (student work in portfolios, field notes from classroom observations and interview transcriptions) provided contextual elements to the study.

The quantitative results of the study were mixed. There was no statistically significant difference between students enrolled in the reading intervention class compared to those in the control group on academic performance, attendance, or behavior. Participants in the reading class scored higher on scanning (F (1, 29) = 11.21, p = .00) and vocabulary (F (1, 29) = 5.96, p = .02) than those in the control group.Qualitative results indicated that students enrolled in the reading class who learned comprehension, scanning, and vocabulary strategies did not uniformly apply them during reading in core content areas (English, mathematics, science and social studies).