Investigation of Reading Intervention Effectiveness Using Propensity Score Matching

• In Event: Impact, Implementation, and Evaluation of Literacy Programs for Adolescents

Abstract

This study compared outcomes for students who received supplemental intervention services in a state reading program with students who did not receive such services. Propensity score matching was employed in an attempt to create more comparable subgroups of students in order to determine whether reading intervention had an effect on reading achievement. Using propensity scores as a covariate, intervention receipt was more strongly associated with reading achievements in grades 1 and 3. In these grades across the six years of analysis, those receiving additional reading intervention were as likely or slightly less likely to score in a higher performance category from fall to spring as those students who did not receive additional intervention.

Authors

• Grant B. Morgan, Baylor University

• Tammiee S. Dickenson, University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Jennifer E. Young, University of South Carolina