Improving Reading Comprehension and Social Studies Knowledge Among Middle School Students With Disabilities
Swanson E, Wanzek J, Vaughn S, Roberts G, Fall A-M · 2015
grade Cquasi-experimentdeveloper-lednot-applicable
Sample
130 eighth-grade students with disabilities (72 treatment, 58 comparison) drawn from the 112 classes of two earlier PACT randomised trials
Population
Eighth-graders with disabilities included in general education US history classes
Design
A pooled subgroup analysis of students with disabilities from Vaughn et al. (2013) and Vaughn et al. (2015). The parent trials were randomised, but this is a non-randomised subset defined by a post-hoc student characteristic, which is why the authors describe it as quasi-experimental. It adds no new data collection and no new identification.
Key findings
Students with disabilities in PACT classes outperformed comparison peers on content knowledge acquisition (ES 0.26) and content-area reading comprehension (ES 0.34) but NOT on standardized reading comprehension (ES 0.09, ns) - the same knowledge-yes, standardized-comprehension-no pattern as the parent trials, in the subgroup usually argued to need the intervention most.
Genetic confound
Low for the parent randomisation, but the subgroup is defined post-randomisation, so subgroup composition is not guaranteed balanced.
Replication notes
Not applicable - a subgroup re-analysis of trials already recorded in this cluster.
DOI / URL
10.1177/0014402914563704
Effects
| Outcome | Metric | Value | Measure | Timing | Vs | Horizon | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content knowledge acquisition, students with disabilities | effect size | 0.26 | researcher-designed | post-units | business-as-usual | end-of-treatment | domain-skill |
| Content-area reading comprehension, students with disabilities | effect size | 0.34 | researcher-designed | post-units | business-as-usual | end-of-treatment | near-transfer |
| Standardized reading comprehension, students with disabilities | effect size | 0.09, not significant | standardized | post-units | business-as-usual | end-of-treatment | near-transfer |