Fourth Graders’ Growth in Reading Comprehension and Fluency: A Pretest-Posttest Randomized Control Study

This study examined the growth in reading comprehension and fluency of 52 fourth-grade general education students in a Midwestern elementary school. Students were randomly assigned to receive instruction in either McGraw Hill's Reading Mastery, Signature Edition or Scott Foresman's Celebrate Reading. Each group received ninety minutes of daily instruction from one of two randomly assigned teachers. The AIMSweb measurement system was used to collect fluency and comprehension data. At the beginning of the study, there were no significant differences between the groups. However, over the school year, the Reading Mastery group showed significantly stronger growth in both fluency and comprehension skills. The effect sizes for the differences in the spring were .75 for fluency and .41 for comprehension.

Research Citation:

Stockard, J. (2010). Fourth graders' growth in reading comprehension and fluency: A pretest-posttest randomized control study comparing Reading Mastery and Scott Foresman basal reading program (NIFDI Technical Report 2010-3). National Institute for Direct Instruction.