Active Research Projects
Completed Projects
Project ELLA: English Language/Literacy Acquisition (2004-08)
Project ELLA is a five-year longitudinal research study funded in 2003 by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Educational Science (IES), and represents a collaborative project between researchers at Texas A & M University, Sam Houston State University, and the Institute of Reading Research. The primary objective of Project ELLA is to implement a scientifically rigorous evaluation of alternative instructional models for primary grade students whose first language is Spanish.
Purpose
This study compares Structured English Immersion and Transitional Bilingual Models when delivered with the highest level of instructional quality and in a fashion reflecting current best practices. We will attempt to determine which instructional delivery model is more effective in helping native Spanish-speaking children acquire English language and literacy. We also seek to know if certain children respond more favorably in one model while others respond more favorably in the other. Ultimately, we intend to determine not just which model is “best,” but under what circumstances and for whom each model is best.
Procedures
This study is a four-year longitudinal investigation of approximately 1200 Spanish-speaking students beginning in their kindergarten year and ending in their third-grade year.
Scaling-up Effective Interventions for Preventing Reading Difficulties (2003-08)
Project
Scale-up was a five-year multi-site research study, funded in 2003 under the
Interagency Educational Research Initiative (cronym>IERI)
by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. It represents a collaboration between the
Institute of Reading Research and the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for
Reading and Language Arts (UTCRLA). The primary objective was
to investigate the processes involved with implementing research-validated
first-grade reading interventions on a wide scale, in multiple schools with
multiple contexts. Additionally, we focused efforts on the impact of ongoing support
- coaching - by providing periodic in-person visits or interactive technology
communications to reading intervention teachers.
Purpose
The first three years of the study concentrated on the process of bringing to scale Proactive Reading and Responsive Reading, which differ dramatically in terms of their theoretical orientations and instructional design. Students were randomly assigned to receive one of these interventions. Certified teachers offered the intervention for 40 minutes daily to groups of three students. Both were shown to be equally effective in previous research conducted in six schools in Houston, Texas (Mathes et al., 2005).
Teachers were trained in either Proactive or Proactive Reading and engaged in one of the three coaching conditions, On-Site Coaching, On-Demand Coaching or Virtual Coaching.
During the last year of the study, 2007-2008 school year, SMU researchers shifted their focus to look more closely at the effectiveness of teachers getting on-going support through the Virtual Coach as opposed to teachers who received no further support beyond the four professional development days attended by all participating teachers.
This longitudinal study included approximately 2000 elementary students, 142 intervention teachers, and 86 schools in two widely separated urban and suburban areas. The following school districts participated: Bartlett, Burnet, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Dallas, Eanes, Fort Worth, Garland, Luling, Richardson, Rockdale, Rogers, Salado, Thrall, Troy and UT Elementary School.
Status
During the 2003-2004 pilot year, IRR developed teacher guidebooks and professional development materials for each intervention, as well as the Virtual Coach (VC) technology component. The first three years in the schools teachers used a CD Rom to access the VC. In 2007-2008, a new version of the Virtual Coach, developed by personnel from The Guildhall at SMU, was utilized. Teachers accessed the VC online for one on one, as well as group, discussions and support.
Preliminary outcomes for the first year of implementation, 2004-2005, are positive for both interventions, although differences for coaching models have not been detected in student outcomes.
The 2008-2009 school year will be used to analyze the study's quantitative and qualitative data.
Scaling-up Project Description (PDF slide presentation)
Fluency Foundation: Talking Fingers (2005-06)
This project examines two models for increasing reading fluency. In one model, children are taught advanced decoding skills and are then asked to apply these skills to text reading. In the second model, children are asked to engage in frequent oral reading of connected test. Both models are being compared using computer programs designed to increase reading fluency based on one or the other model.
Texas Instruments Model/Demonstration Project (2004-05)
This model/demonstration project represents a collaboration between the Institute of Reading Research, Head Start of Greater Dallas (HSGD), and the Texas Instruments (TI) Foundation, and is designed to demonstrate the impact of providing quality early childhood education services in three area Head Start Centers in Dallas, Texas. This is a two-year project that began in 2004-2005 and will end in 2005-2006. We are working with the Margaret Cone, Davids’ Place, and Jerry Junkins Head Start Centers to:
- Provide staff development to assist them in most effectively using the LEAP (Language Enrichment Activities Program) curriculum, particularly as it relates to providing differentiated instruction.
- Provide ongoing coaching across the year to teachers teaching both English and Spanish speaking children.
- Provide coaching to the Head Start bilingual coach on effective techniques for coaching.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of LEAP implementation both in terms of teacher adherence to the LEAP curriculum and application of principles for providing differentiated instruction, and in terms of child outcomes.
Procedures
We have provided 46 early childhood educators with staff development through a two-day course designed to build on previously taken LEAP coursework. The objective was to train the staff to use the LEAP curriculum m more effectively to target the needs of individual children. We also provide ongoing coaching by SMU staff, following our data-based coaching model developed under prior research conducted at the Institute for Reading Research (IRR). Our SMU coach works with a Head Start bilingual coach on implementing this same coaching model. Finally, we will evaluate effectiveness using multiple measures of language and early literacy collected at the beginning and end of the school year. We will also measure growth across the year each month using continuous progress monitoring probes, and we will conduct classroom observations of LEAP implementation.
Development of English Language Literacy in Spanish Speaking Children: Project DELLS (2004, SMU and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
This research represents a collaboration between the University of Houston, the University of Texas – Austin, the University of Texas – Houston Medical School, and SMU. Multiple projects examine various facets of providing quality education to English language learners who are native Spanish speakers. The Institute for Reading Research is involved in a project that examines the impact of providing intensive reading intervention to struggling readers who are native-Spanish-speaking first graders. Some children are being taught to read in Spanish, while others are being taught to read in English. These children will be monitored through 3rd grade to determine which approach facilitates greater English language and literacy learning. Dr. Mathes is the primary author of the interventions used with both languages. SMU's part of the study is performed in the 4th year of research funding.
Continuous Monitoring of Early Reading Skills (CMERS) (2003)
National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Small Business and
Innovation Research (SBIR Grant).
An
Experimental Investigation of LEAP (2004-05)
Texas Instruments Foundation
This project was designed to determine the efficacy of the Language Enrichment Activities Program (LEAP). Conducted in public schools in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, this study compared the reading-readiness skills of children at-risk for future reading and learning difficulties due to low SES or English language-learning issues in a preschool classroom that used the LEAP curriculum to the reading readiness skills of "regular" children who were taught with the LEAP curriculum in another preschool classroom in the same building.