A randomised control trial of a Tier-2 small-group intervention (‘MiniLit’) for young struggling readers1

Abstract

The response-to-intervention model is predicated upon increasingly intensive tiers of instruction. The aim of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a Tier-2 small-group literacy intervention (‘MiniLit’) designed for young readers who are still struggling after experiencing whole-class initial instruction. A total of 22 students in Kindergarten and Year 2 at a New South Wales public school were randomly allocated to form two comparable groups. The experimental group received the Tier-2 small-group literacy intervention for one hour per day for four days per week for three school terms (27 weeks of instruction) while the control group continued to receive regular whole-class literacy instruction during this time. All students were assessed on four measures of reading and related skills before the intervention commenced, again after two terms of instruction and once more after three terms of instruction. Large and statistically significant mean differences between the two groups were evident at post-test on two of the four tests employed measuring phonological recoding and single word reading. Large effect sizes provided evidence for the efficacy of the small-group intervention for young struggling readers.