Improving Literacy Outcomes for Middle-Grade Students

Many African American students arrive at middle school unable to demonstrate independent and guided reading and word recognition skills. Yet little research exists on the impact of certain reading interventions on these students’ development of those skills. Using a Response to Intervention framework, this quantitative quasi-experimental pretest posttest study investigated the effects of reading intervention on 2 sample groups (30 seventh grade students, and 30 eighth grade African American students). The treatment included supplemental targeted reading instruction during a 4-week intervention period. Findings were analyzed using ANCOVA to discern whether specific targeted instructions were associated with reading performances of African American struggling readers. Results indicated that those students who received the intervention treatments in the form of targeted supplementary instruction showed significant improvements in their scores from pretest to posttest. This study supports positive social change by providing documentation to administrators and teachers of middle school students on a method of supplemental reading instruction that can improve struggling readers’ proficiency.