Project: Improving the Academic Performance of First-Grade Students with Reading and Math Difficulty

This study addresses first-grade students with comorbid difficulty across word reading and calculations. Students with comorbid difficulty are randomly assigned to 4 conditions, a control group, coordinated treatment across reading & math, reading-only treatment, & math-only treatment. The primary purposes are to test coordinated intervention’s effects against the business-as-usual school program on post-intervention word reading and arithmetic. The study population is students who begin first grade with delays in word reading and calculations. Students who meet entry criteria are randomly assigned to coordinated intervention across reading and math, reading intervention, math intervention, and a business-as-usual control group (typical school program). The three researcher-delivered interventions are conducted 15 weeks (3 sessions per week; 30 minutes per session). Students in all 4 conditions are tested before researcher-delivered intervention begins and after it ends.