Dr. Mark Adler

Beginning rural high school students with emerging literacy needs (n = 10) who participated in regular classroom reading coursework used in combination with a Foundations, Adventures, Mastery, and Explorations supplemental literacy program and beginning rural high school students with emerging literacy needs (n = 10) who participated in regular classroom reading coursework alone all realized pretest-posttest gains in their reading comprehension, reading vocabulary, and reading composite Normal Curve Equivalent and grade equivalent test score performance. Overall grade point average statistical comparisons were in the direction of improvement with no statistically significant differences between groups. At posttest students had increased absences in both study arms despite reading test score and grade improvement indicating that absence frequencies remain a concern in small rural high schools. In both arms of the study student absence frequencies were above the parent contact absence policy threshold. Students in both arms of the study participated in extracurricular activities including sports, clubs, and activities with no pretest-posttest or posttest-posttest frequency differences observed. Teachers received ongoing training in phonemic awareness and content based scripted reading interventions throughout the study. The importance of program continuance was discussed.