WestEd has conducted a randomized control trial on the use of Tales2go in a San Francisco Bay Area school district’s after school program. The goal of the study was to determine the effect of adding a listening component to literacy instruction—particularly on vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension and motivation to read.
In the district, approximately 42% of elementary students receive free and reduced lunch. The study included students from 8 of the district’s 11 elementary schools. Over 200 students participated in the study, including ELL students (26% treatment, 21% control) and free and reduced lunch students (48% in treatment group, 55% in control group).
Results include the following:
- Students using Tales2go attained 58% of the annual expected gain in reading achievement in ten weeks, three months ahead of the students who did not use Tales2go.
- The treatment group outperformed the control group across all measures, by 3.0x in reading comprehension, nearly 7.0x in 2nd grade vocabulary, and nearly 4.0x in reading motivation.
- The study included just listening (i.e., no paired text) both at school and home.
WestEd is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research, development, and service agency that works with education and other communities throughout the United States. Click here to read the full study.
