Examination of the Effects of the Response to Intervention Program on the Reading Achievement Test Scores of Third Grade English as Second Language Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Response to Intervention (RTI) program on the reading achievement test scores and reading skills development of third grade English as Second Language (ESL) students as measured by the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) data and Imagination Station (Istation) data. The investigation evaluated data from participants in four elementary schools (two RTI schools and two non-RTI schools), in two West Tennessee school districts. The study compared the reading gain scores (TCAP data) of ESL students who had enrolled in the intervention program (treatment group) with the reading gain scores of their ESL peers who had only the regular reading curriculum in third grade. The study also determined the reading growth of the RTI ESL students by comparing students' beginning of year (BOY) Istation Indicators of Progress (ISIP) scores to their end of year (EOY) ISIP scores. The participants in the analysis were limited to third grade students who participated in the 2009 TCAP assessment, and only existing data were used in the data analysis. The sample size consisted of 202 participants (77 intervention participants and 125 nonintervention participants). The investigation employed a one-sample t-test, an independent sample t-test, and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to answer three fundamental questions. The data indicated that the RTI ESL students in the present study increased their reading performance significantly by the end of their third grade year, as indicated by the students' end-of-year ISIP data.