Intensive Reading Remediation in Grade 2 or 3: Are There Effects a Decade Later?
Blachman, B. A., Schatschneider, C., Fletcher, J. M., et al. · 2014
grade Brctdeveloper-involvedunreplicatednumbers spot-checked
Sample
Original 69 (37 tx / 32 comp); decade follow-up 58 (84% retention)
Population
US poor word-level readers identified in grades 2-3; followed to ages 19-22.
Design
Decade follow-up of a randomized 8-month 1:1 explicit-phonics tutoring trial (50 min/day). All STANDARDIZED measures. Caveats: small N; non-random attrition (missing cases skew male, lower maternal education); not powered for long-term detection.
Key findings
A decade out, on standardized measures, only word recognition (d=0.62) and Basic Skills (0.53) survived; decoding, comprehension, spelling, and fluency decayed to non-significance. Confirms the decoding-vs-comprehension split persists long-term: intensive early remediation can leave a durable WORD-READING residue in at-risk readers but does not durably move comprehension. Attainment trended favorable but ns.
Genetic confound
RCT with standardized measures; the surviving effect is in selected poor readers.
Replication notes
Best long-horizon phonics RCT follow-up; all numbers verified against PMC full text.
DOI / URL
10.1037/a0033663
Effects
| Outcome | Metric | Value | Measure | Timing | Vs | Horizon | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word recognition (Woodcock Word ID) - persists | d | 1.69 EOT -> 0.97 (1yr) -> 0.62 (decade, sig) | standardized | decade follow-up | business-as-usual | over-2yr | domain-skill |
| Basic Skills Cluster - persists | d | 0.53 (decade, sig) | standardized | decade follow-up | business-as-usual | over-2yr | domain-skill |
| Decoding (Word Attack) - fades | d | 0.14 (decade, ns) | standardized | decade follow-up | business-as-usual | over-2yr | domain-skill |
| Passage comprehension - fades to ~0 | d | 0.78 EOT -> 0.06 (decade, ns) | standardized | decade follow-up | business-as-usual | over-2yr | domain-skill |
| High school completion / postsecondary enrollment | % | 85% vs 68% / 70% vs 52% (both ns, tiny N) | standardized | decade follow-up | business-as-usual | over-2yr | attainment |
Cited by
- Systematic/explicit phonics vs whole language and balanced literacystrong supportconf: highgc: low