Lawrence, J. F., Rolland, R. G., Branum-Martin, L., & Snow, C. E. (2014). Generating vocabulary knowledge for at-risk middle school readers: Contrasting program effects and growth trajectories. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 19(2), 76–97. http://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2014.958836
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19345740903167042
Abstract
A quasi-experimental study of a novel, cross-content area vocabulary inter- vention program called Word Generation showed significantly greater growth among 6th- to 8th-grade students in schools implementing the program than in comparison schools, on a curriculum-specific test. Furthermore, the language-minority students in the treatment, but not the comparison, schools showed greater growth than the English- only students. Improvement on the curriculum-specific test predicted performance on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) English language arts assessment, again only for students in the treatment schools. Recognizing the need to im- plement a more rigorous experimental study of this program, nonetheless we conclude that participation in the intervention, with its focus on deep reading, comprehension of current-events topics, productive classroom discussion, developing arguments, and producing persuasive essays, was a plausible contributor to student performance on the MCAS.
Funders
Development and further evaluation of Word Generation was supported by Senior Urban Education Fellowship awarded to Catherine Snow by the Council of Great City Schools (https://www.cgcs.org). Joshua Lawrence was supported by funds awarded to Catherine Snow by the Spencer Foundation (https://www.spencer.org) and the Carnegie Corporation of New York (https://www.carnegie.org). This research was made possible through grants from IES (R305A050056). https://ies.ed.gov
Related Links
http://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2014.958836
Related Paper(s)
Lawrence, J. F., Rolland, R. G., Branum-Martin, L., & Snow, C. E. (2014). Generating vocabulary knowledge for at-risk middle school readers: Contrasting program effects and growth trajectories. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 19(2), 76–97. http://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2014.958836
