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ABSTRACT

This study examined the effectiveness of a professionally developed comprehensive reading comprehension strategies program when compared to traditional reading comprehension instruction presented to 865 fourth and fifth graders (682 with full data sets) in 34 classrooms in the United States. The treatment included a strong, technology-based teacher training component as well as highly motivational materials for 53 classroom-delivered student lessons. The research design was a randomized trial at the classroom level, with classes randomly assigned to either the treatment (classroom n=17) or control (classroom n=17) conditions. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was performed on student achievement data, nested within classrooms within treatment conditions, for the intact classes. HLM analyses using experimenter-designed achievement tests as the outcome variable showed a significant effect for condition, with students in the treatment condition scoring higher than students in the control condition across all the different student groups (gender, ethnicity, and English Language proficiency).

Keywords: DVD, Teacher training, Reading comprehension, Strategies