Lessons Learned during the Development and Validation of an Intensive Evidence-Based Reading Intervention for Secondary Students

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe a 40+ year journey during which researchers have endeavored to design and evaluate an integrated, empirically based reading intervention for secondary students and to chronicle the lessons learned as well as suggest future directions for this type of work. Initial development of the intervention began in the 1980s with individual studies, each focused on one part of the reading process (e.g., decoding, vocabulary, comprehension). The quantitative results of these studies showed significant differences between the experimental and the control group or between baseline and after-instruction conditions. In 2004, an opportunity arose to integrate the empirically validated components within a whole reading program and to have that program independently evaluated. Several scaling-up efforts have resulted. The lessons learned and the challenges inherent in scaling up an intervention are shared. Recommendations for future efforts related to putting research into practice are made.