New York College Learning Skills Association

RTDE Issue Contents

Research and Teaching
in Developmental Education

Volume 18, Issue 2, Spring 2002

Reading Therapy Project
By Roxanne McCarty, Paul Smith's College

Abstract

Nine inmates, ages ranging from 26 to 66 years, at the Federal Correctional Institute in Ray Brook, New York, were taught to read using the Phono-Graphix method. All nine students who completed the program had uniformly low intake scores on the Word I.D. and Word Attack subtests of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised (WRMT-R). Grade equivalents at intake ranged from 1.3 to 4.1; grade equivalents at final ranged from 2.3 to 10.0. Three students who completed the course improved their Basic Reading Skills, the combined measure of Word I.D. and Word Attack. Average Basic Reading Skills standard score gains were 17 points (more than one standard deviation) in an average of 33 one-hour sessions, an average gain of 1.9 standard score points per session. The students gained an average of 11.77 standard score points in Word I.D. and 26 points on Word Attack. The project demonstrates the efficacy of the method because eight of the nine students made large gains (one or more standard deviations on the Word Attack subtest of the WRMT-R). Three students also made large gains on the Word Identification subtest.