Randomized controlled trial of a whole-school reading program

Randomized controlled trial of a whole-school reading program
A study published in The Curriculum Journal presents the findings of a randomized controlled trial that evaluated the efficacy of the Bug Club program on the reading, spelling, and vocabulary skills of students in the first two years of primary school in the U.K. compared to students in a control group.
 
Bug Club is a whole-school reading program based on the principles of guided reading and synthetic phonics. It is offered as part of, rather than in addition to, standard literacy lessons. This study analyzed data from 1,273 students in Years 1 and 2 from 30 schools (15 intervention, 15 control). Students were tested at baseline and again at 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months, using the InCAS reading assessment for 5 to 11 year olds.
 
At the 6- and 12-month tests, students in the Bug Club schools showed more progress on the standardized reading measure than students in control schools (effect size = +0.18 and +0.16). For disadvantaged students, the picture was mixed. After six months, there was a greater impact on reading gains in schools with high levels of students eligible for free school meals than those in control schools. After twelve months, this effect had disappeared, but students eligible for pupil premium (extra funding from the government to help schools improve the achievement of disadvantaged students) were found to have improved more on reading gains than those in control schools.

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