Summer School Instruction Leads to Significant Gains in Reading Comprehension for Fort Smith Public School Students

Arkansas, Comprehension, Response to Intervention, RtI, Tier 3, Visualizing and Verbalizing

Fort Smith Public Schools in Fort Smith, Arkansas, serves a large percentage of students who are at-risk of reading failure. During the summer of 2018, Fort Smith Public Schools implemented Lindamood-Bell® instruction to address the specific needs of this student population. Twelve students received an average of 60.3 hours of Visualizing and Verbalizing instruction to develop concept imagery for comprehension. Instruction was delivered by Fort Smith teachers who received professional development in the programs developed by Lindamood-Bell’s founders. Student gains were measured with a battery of comprehension assessments.

RESULTS:
On average, Visualizing and Verbalizing students achieved significant improvements in comprehension. They made large standard score changes on all measures. Additionally, the 22-point percentile increase in reading comprehension put these students within the normal range (25th-75th percentile). Their pre- to posttest results were statistically significant on nearly all measures. The results of this study illustrate that Lindamood-Bell instruction in the Visualizing and Verbalizing program leads to improved comprehension, which is essential to achieving success with school curricula.

PROFILE:
Number of Students: 12 Average Age: 12.0
Average Hours of Instruction: 60.3
Lindamood-Bell Programs Implemented: Visualizing and Verbalizing®

Outcome Measures:
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4th
• Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude-2nd (oral directions)
• Gray Oral Reading Tests-4th (accuracy, fluency, and comprehension)