Word Count: 8,491 Using Self Selected Reading Materials
This ex post facto study is an analysis of the effect of 100 Book Challenge, a reading program component emphasizing extensive independent reading of self-selected materials, on the reading achievement scores of Philadelphia pupils in grades 1 through 3 during the 2002 to 2004 school years. The stud...
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Language: | English |
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Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.595.9766 http://www.americanreading.com/documents/report-offenberg_2009-03.pdf |
Summary: | This ex post facto study is an analysis of the effect of 100 Book Challenge, a reading program component emphasizing extensive independent reading of self-selected materials, on the reading achievement scores of Philadelphia pupils in grades 1 through 3 during the 2002 to 2004 school years. The study involved 89 different elementary schools—14 100 Book Challenge or Treatment schools and 75 Comparison schools. A preliminary study replicated previous findings by showing that adding the Treatment to the ongoing reading programs of schools significantly improved 2004 TerraNova reading score averages. The main study showed that the preliminary findings were due to the test score gains of two groups of pupils with needs often not satisfied by traditional early elementary grade reading programs: African American children; and children who, according to their 1st grade, first marking period report card marks, were early, independent readers. Together these groups constituted 79 % of the nearly 16,000 children who were subjects of the study. The observed effect sizes were large enough to show that 100 Book Challenge made meaningful improvements to the test scores of these groups of students, and that it should be considered when designing reading programs for schools where they are prevalent. |
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