This project will train school staff who support students using pull-out reading instruction and intervention (e.g., educators such as reading specialists, paraeducators, instructional facilitators, and tutors) to use Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI, formerly called Targeted Reading Intervention) with two adaptations: 1) a digital version of the traditional “paper and pencil” intervention (“TRI app”) in a 2) high dosage model whereby educators provide daily reading support to multiple K-3 students not yet reading on grade level.
TRI was developed as a professional development program for classroom teachers with weekly virtual coaching to improve reading instruction. As such, TRI has been evaluated through IES-funded RCTs and is one of only a few programs that has shown significant impacts on alphabetics, reading comprehension, and fluency (Amendum et al., 2011; Pedonti et al., 2022; Vernon-Feagans et al., 2013, 2018).
This project will allow us to empirically test the digital and high dosage adaptations of TRI, and, more importantly, provide funding to implement, scale, and sustain TRI in participating districts and beyond.
Responding as a Product Team under ALN 84.305N (LEARN network), this project aims to:
- Develop the TRI app: Update TRI to a digital platform to be used by educators with K-3 students reading below grade level.
- Implement TRI as high-dosage instruction: Train and support 60 educators in 30 schools to implement TRI with 1,200 students.
- Evaluate TRI impacts: Use a quasi-experimental design to test the impact of TRI on educator efficacy/knowledge and student reading growth with a matched sample of 30 schools (including an additional 60 educators and their 1,200 students).
- Engage in TRI scalability and sustainability efforts: Collect and analyze focus group and cost data to study how to scale and sustain TRI.
- Provide TRI certification and TRI coach training for participating district and school staff to ensure TRI is widely implemented.
