A rigorous experimental study by researchers at Education Northwest found that low-achieving middle and high school students increased their reading comprehension after one semester of tutoring with Read Right, a nationally used intervention program that supplements regular English language arts instruction. The study looked at student achievement in reading and motivation to read for 424 students in four Omaha, Nebraska, secondary schools during the fall semester of 2009.

The evaluation found that overall, Read Right had a significant positive effect on reading comprehension. Also, after participating in Read Right, a significantly larger proportion of students reported they read for fun almost every day compared to students in a control group. Effects varied by school and student subgroup.

“Overall, this means that Read Right worked in these Omaha schools,” said Dr. Caitlin Scott, lead researcher on the project at Education Northwest. “After a semester of Read Right, students made about as much gain on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Comprehension Test as a typical 9th- or 10th-grade student makes from an entire year of instruction. This is good news for these struggling readers.”

Dr. Dee Tadlock, the developer of Read Right, said, “We were very pleased with the results … a lot of administrators want to see research by third parties as an evaluation of effectiveness. It lends credibility to all of our data and that will help us in demonstrating that we get pretty amazing results.” Tadlock noted that this is the first study of Read Right to use an experimental design, which is considered to be the “gold standard” of research designs.

The Omaha-based Sherwood Foundation, which has invested more than $1 million in implementing the program in nine Omaha public secondary schools, commissioned the evaluation for Omaha Public Schools (OPS). "Because OPS wants to make good decisions based on data, we offered to do an experimental design, randomized control trial for them so they could really find out how well or if this program was working at all," said Katie Weitz White, a Sherwood Foundation officer. She added that the study findings will be used to make changes in training and to provide additional materials and tutors.

Read Right has been used in about 500 sites since 1991. Rather than stressing phonics and vocabulary like many traditional reading interventions, Read Right tutors focus on students’ accuracy, pacing, and intonation. Typically, Read Right is a class during the school day with no more than five students per tutor.

Download and read this evaluation report.