Typical Rates of Regression After Exiting Supplemental Interventions in Reading

Abstract

Once students meet exit criteria and Tier 2 reading supports are removed, many do not maintain their current progress and fail to meet future performance benchmarks. Although estimates of average growth during intervention exist, typical rates of growth after supports are removed are relatively unknown. In this research brief, we used segmented regression to quantify differences between students’ reading fluency progress during intervention and postintervention. Participants were second and third grade students, from 16 schools, who were receiving Tier 2 reading interventions targeting oral reading fluency. Once students met exit criteria, their progress was monitored weekly for the rest of the school year. The average rate of improvement was 3.50 words read correct in 1 minute (WRCM) per week (SD = 1.65) during the intervention and 0.09 WRCM (SD = 1.63) after exiting the intervention. Students who met exit criteria during the fall semester (i.e., fast responders) displayed significantly (p < .001) higher growth during the intervention (M = 4.32) compared to students who exited during the spring semester (i.e., slow responders; M = 2.69). Moreover, the average rate of postintervention growth was significantly (p < .001) higher for fast responders (M = 0.54) compared to slow responders (M = −0.35 WRCM improvement per week).