Preventing Reading Difficulty in Young Children

Christopher Schatschneider, Ph.D.
Funded by the Interagency Educational Research Initiative-NSF

This project, conducted in collaboration with Donna Scanlon and Frank Vellutino at SUNY Albany, involves a large longitudinal study of approximately 1400 children who are currently enrolled in "high risk" schools in the state of New York. The project's focus is to examine different ways that the reading abilities of children in these schools can be improved. Using a RCT design, participating schools have been assigned to one of three treatment conditions (professional development for the teachers, tutoring for children who are lagging behind, and a third condition t hat combines both professional teacher development with tutoring) or a control condition.