The Relationship Between a Silent Reading Fluency Instructional Protocol on Students’ Reading Comprehension and Achievement in an Urban School Setting

Summary of Findings:

The study examined a large-scale implementation of Reading Plus to validate the effects as well as the feasibility of deployment of Reading Plus within a wide range of school settings. A total of 16,143 students from grades 4 through 10 in 23 schools in Regions II and III in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools participated in the study.

Results indicated that students participating in Reading Plus for a minimum of 40 or more lessons over approximately six months made significantly greater gains on both the criterion-referenced and norm-referenced reading tests that are part of the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) than students who did not participate in the program. Positive results also were demonstrated for various subpopulations often considered at risk for reading difficulties. African-American, Latino-American, special education, and learning disabled students who participated in the Reading Plus intervention demonstrated significantly and substantially greater gains in measures of reading achievement on both the CRT and NRT portions of the FCAT than students not participating in the intervention.

“Results indicated that students participating in Reading Plus for a minimum of 40 or more lessons over approximately six months made significantly greater gains than students who did not participate in the program.”