La Costa Canyon High
School, Carlsbad California
Reading Upgrade Pilot Study Results
by Teacher Sarah McNary
10 students participated (selected from
the lower quartile, freshmen, 9 Hispanic, 1 Caucasian)
2 students were added (one senior and one junior by student request,
both Hispanic)
6 students finished all 50 lessons and were post-tested
1 student completed all 50 lessons but was not tested
Testing was administered one on one using
the Woodcock Johnson-R (Reading Subtests)
Growth is listed as years/months:
Student |
Letter-Word
ID |
Passage
Comp |
Word
Attack |
Reading
Vocab |
1 |
1.3 |
3.2 |
4.9 |
2.9 |
2 |
3 |
2.4 |
8.4 |
4 |
3 |
6.1 |
5.1 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
3.1 |
2.6 |
2 |
.5 |
5 |
8 |
1.4 |
9.1 |
1.8 |
6 |
2 |
2.6 |
.6 |
.9 |
Average Growth |
3.9 years |
2.8 years |
5 years |
2.2 years |
Discussion:
All participating students reported liking
the program; finding it helpful and enjoyable. Students
were pleased with their growth overall and the older students
particularly found it a positive experience although their
growth was less than the freshmen (this may be due to specific
learning disabilities).
The program was easy to administrate although
the students who were not specifically enrolled in Plato had
to miss English classes in order to participate. This
contributed to sporadic attendance and 5 students were unable
to complete the program in the time allotted.
Specific student comments from the final
anecdotal evaluation included:
“It was fun and interesting”
“It helped”
“Yea, I grew 5 years!”
In response to “Is it fun? Interesting?
Helpful?” student wrote, “It’s all three.” |
