Eliminating Reading Problems: Foundational for Preparing Competent World Class Students

Format

Poster Presentation

Presenters

Dee R. Tadlock, Central Washington UniversityFollow

Location

Harborside Center East and West

Strand #1

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Relevance

The proposal relates to the strand, “Head”: Academic Achievement & Leadership. More specifically, it directly addresses the sub-topic: Closing achievement gaps and promoting learning for all children and youth especially for high-poverty populations. Reading problems too often provide an insurmountable barrier to academic success and therefore to closing existing achievement gaps. This presentation will present a unique reading intervention program that rests on a foundation of neuroscience and has yielded impressive and well-researched results (including with high-poverty students and special education students). Data reflecting a reversal of achievement gaps will be presented.

Brief Program Description

Administrators and teachers of all grades will profit from learning about a unique intervention model that relies on brain plasticity to quickly transform poor readers to excellent readers. This powerful model challenges mainstream thinking, explaining why so many students have reading problems and what can be done about it. Evaluation data, including gold-standard third party research, will be presented that confirm the power of the intervention.

Summary

A quality and equitable education is not possible for students who are poor readers. They are prone to defiance, oppositional behavior, retention, dropping out, and, saddest of all, hopelessness. This presentation presents a unique intervention model that relies on the plasticity of the brain to quickly transform poor readers of all ages to excellent readers, reversing the negative variables associated with reading problems and replacing them with academic success, restored confidence, ignited potential, and renewed hope. Administrators and teachers of all grades will profit from learning about this powerful model that challenges mainstream thinking in the field of reading, explaining why so many students have reading problems and what can be done about it. Evaluation data, including gold-standard third party research, will be presented that confirm the power of the intervention to not only close achievement gaps, but to reverse them. The presentation will explore issues affecting teaching reading, learning how to read, and addressing reading problems. A view of what the brain does to read that challenges a 150-year-old-assumption by reading professionals will be presented, and the consequences of failure to account for the implicit nature of procedural learning in instructional interactions will be explored. Eliminating reading problems is a very complex undertaking; it would be unrealistic to think that a brief presentation at a conference can give attendees the knowledge and skills required to transform poor readers to excellent readers. However, both educators and administrators will profit from knowing about this paradigm-shifting view of how the brain learns to read and the implications for instruction. A brief overview of the methodology will be presented. “If we are to obtain results never before achieved, we must expect to employ methods never before attempted.” Francis Bacon

Evidence

Independent, gold-standard research: Scott C, Nelsestuen K, Autio E, Deussen T, and Hanita M (2010). Evaluation of Read Right in Omaha Middle and High Schools, Portland, OR, Education Northwest. Findings: Read Right methodology demonstrated "significant positive effect" in a controlled study involving 400+ middle and high school students. Researchers measured an average effect size of .23 after an average 18 hours of Read Right tutoring delivered during one semester (the probability that the results were achieved by chance: p=.000). African American students measured even greater gains: .34 with a probability of p=.007. Research Rated by the National Center on Response to Intervention: Education Northwest's independent study examining the effectiveness of Read Right methodology was reviewed in 2011 by experts at the National Center on Response to Intervention. The experts found the research to be reliable and rigorous. Read Right Compared to Striving Readers Project Schools: Researchers use effect size for statistical analysis when results are compared across studies using different measurement instruments for the pre-, post- testing. In an examination of effect sizes, Read Right tutoring out-performed reading programs studied as part of the federal Striving Readers project. • The best Striving Readers project school produced an effect size of .29 after one full school year of instruction with its selected reading intervention model. • The best Read Right school produced an effect size of .58—after one semester of tutoring. Read Right participants registered twice the gain in half the time.

Biographical Sketch

DEE TADLOCK earned a Ph.D. in reading education in 1978. She has taught reading at every level from elementary school through graduate school and has also worked with adult literacy in community college, community-based, and workforce programs. Tadlock holds adjunct faculty status at Central Washington University and has been published in several professional journals including Journal of Reading, Phi Delta Kappan, Reading Psychology, and Adult Literacy & Basic Education. She is author of the book, Read Right! Coaching Your Child to Excellence in Reading.

Keyword Descriptors

Reading, remediation, intervention, achievement gap, reading problems, academic success

Presentation Year

2015

Start Date

3-3-2015 4:00 PM

End Date

3-3-2015 5:30 PM

Recommended Citation

Tadlock, Dee R., "Eliminating Reading Problems: Foundational for Preparing Competent World Class Students" (2015). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 212.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2015/2015/212