Early Reading Intervention to Benefit English Learners

Steve Amendum along with colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University are investigating an early reading intervention and professional development program, the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI), to test its efficacy with English learners (ELs).  The TRI is designed to help classroom teachers acquire key diagnostic strategies for use with young, struggling readers.

The team has been awarded a 5-year, $3.3 million project, funded through a research grant from the Institute of Education Sciences to implement the TRI at 24 elementary schools in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

Participants are kindergarten and first-grade classroom teachers and their students who are English learners from schools in Delaware and North Carolina.

Schools are selected if they have a population in which at least 10% of students are ELs; have kindergarten and first-grade classrooms with at least three EL students each; and the administrators and a majority of kindergarten and first teachers are interested in participating.

Watch Dr. Amendum’s CEHDTalks video to learn what inspired him to undertake this research.