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What about the struggling students? A case study of remedial support programming for early grade reading

Tue, March 24, 11:45am to 1:15pm EDT (11:45am to 1:15pm EDT), Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: Terrace (Level 0), Brickell South

Proposal

Although significant progress has been made to improve access to primary school education, many early grade primary students still continue to struggle with achieving basic educational outcomes, such as learning to read (Banerjee, Cole, Duflo, & Linden, 2005; Gove & Cvelich, 2011). These struggling students are at a much greater risk of dropping out, repeating grades, and simply not developing the reading skills and habits necessary to succeed in school. As a result, there is an urgent need for program implementers, educational researchers, and other key stakeholders to investigate effective approaches to addressing the learning needs of these struggling students.

International research points to remedial support as a solution for helping to improve student reading and learning outcomes in the early grades. When delivered effectively, remedial support programs can directly address the educational needs of struggling students, in turn promoting improved learning outcomes for these students (Banerjee et al., 2005). Remedial support programs can also help to improve teachers’ and administrators’ capacity to provide effective support to struggling students, helping to build a community of practice centered on improving student learning outcomes (Broaddus & Bloodgood, 1999). Further, as even low-cost remedial support interventions have proven to be effective, such interventions can present an attractive, economical option to governments and other stakeholders who are seeking to improve educational quality and early grade learning outcomes with limited resources (Banerjee et al., 2005).

Realizing the importance of remedial support, Room to Read has worked to investigate how teachers who experience the Room to Read early grade reading program provide remedial support to Grade 1 and Grade 2 primary students who are struggling to learn to read. In a case study approach in India that includes perspectives from teachers and program implementers, this study sought to answer the following research questions:

1) What do teachers perceive as the key factors that cause students to struggle with learning to read? To what extent do teachers feel that the remedial support they provide directly addresses these key factors?
2) In what ways does the Room to Read early grade reading program support teachers to provide effective remediation to students who are learning to read? In what ways could Room to Read’s early grade reading program support teachers to provide more effective remediation?
3) What practices, techniques, and resources do teachers find to be effective when delivering remediation to students?

After sharing insights and examples from classroom practices, this presentation will focus on Room to Read’s experience supporting teachers in India to provide remedial support, in turn sharing evidence and insights from this case study; key lessons learned; and suggested recommendations and best practices for providing effective remedial support to early grade primary students.

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