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(Full Report with supporting data being compiled by Georgia State University) AN EVALUATION OF THE REACH FOR READING PROGRAM IN FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA LORENE C. PILCHER, PH.D. AND DONALD C. STEELE, ED.S. GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY ATLANTA MARCH 1999
The Reach for Reading Evaluation was conducted with 200 students in six schools in Fulton County, Georgia. Three of the schools were located in low socioeconomic neighborhoods, and the other three were located in upper middle socioeconomic areas. Before the Reach for Reading Program began in each school, teachers recommended particular children from their classes for the Program. Because all recommended children could not be served during the first session, one-half of the children were assigned to the Reach for Reading Program, and the other one-half were assigned to a comparison group. Due to the natural attrition that occurs in schools, 85 Reach for Reading children and 93 comparison children remained in the evaluation until it ended. All children were pre-tested by the evaluators who did not know to which group the children had been assigned. Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, Level R, which yield three scores, were used. No difference was found between the children assigned to the Reach for Reading Program and the children assigned to the comparison group on any of the three Gates-MacGinitie pre-test scores either before or after the attrition caused by children moving. Therefore, two groups of children remaining in the evaluation through the post-testing did not differ on reading skills at the beginning of the evaluation. After completion of the Program, both the Reach for Reading and the comparison children were post-tested using the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, Level 1. In five of the schools, the criterion for Program completion was 50 sessions. In one of the higher socioeconomic level schools, the children were given approximately 38 sessions. All children were tested by the evaluators, who did not know which children were in Reach for Reading and which ones were in the comparison group. Even though the children did not differ in reading skills before the Reach for Reading Program began, the Reach for Reading Children were significantly superior to the comparison children on all three scores provided by Gates-MacGinitie post-test: Reading Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, and Total Score. To determine whether the Reach for Reading and the comparison children differed on their beliefs about their ability to read, the Self Efficacy Test was individually administered to the children in both groups. This test requires the child to point to one of three cards on which appear the words "no", "sometimes", and "yes" to indicate an answer to each of the following five questions:
Significant differences were found between the groups on all but one of the questions. The Reach for Reading children indicated that they had a higher level of self efficacy than the comparison children on questions 2,3,4, and 5. The two groups did not differ on question 1. Because question 1 describes a more elementary skill than the skills described in the other four questions, all the children might be expected to believe they have that skill. The only conclusion that can be drawn from
this evaluation is that the Reach for Reading Program had a very
positive effect on both the children’s reading skills and
their feelings about their ability to read. |
Preliminary
Report
