Like many schools throughout the country, California Elementary School, in Orange Unified School District (USD), faces a significant challenge helping students reach grade-level proficiency in reading. With a student population comprised of 90 percent English Language Learners and 94 percent receiving free or reduced price lunch, many students begin the year two or more years below grade level. To address this challenge, California Elementary School implemented Lexia Reading® Core5® blended learning program as part of a pilot program in the spring of 2015.
California Elementary School sought to determine the benefits of a blended learning approach to reading instruction, and to examine the relationship between use of Lexia Reading Core5 and gains on DIBELS Next, a commonly used reading assessment.
The pilot program entailed the use of Lexia Reading Core5 in conjunction with the school’s existing curriculum for English Language Arts, Houghton Mifflin Reading (Medallion Edition). Second-grade classrooms were randomly assigned as intervention (Core5) and control (non-Core5) groups. There were 49 Core5 students and 25 non-Core5 students. All students received the same amount of overall reading instruction and intervention time (120 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively). Using Lexia Reading Core5, students completed activities focusing on the five main areas of reading instruction, developing skills such as initial/final consonants discrimination, silent-e word construction, categorizing, idioms, and reading comprehension. Students worked independently in the online program, and teachers used real-time reports and instructional materials to provide face-to-face intervention and address skill gaps as they emerged.
At the start of the pilot program, 16% of the second grade students were working on grade-level skills in Lexia Reading Core5. By May, after 16 weeks of using Lexia Reading Core5, 69% were working on grade-level skills or had reached benchmark. In addition, students using Lexia Reading Core5 had higher average percent growth on DIBELS Next with 25% growth compared to 6% growth for the non-Core5 students.
For more information about Lexia Reading Core5, visit www.lexialearning.com
