Reading and Intensive Learning Strategies “One reason students end up in special education is that they are not learning how to read in regular education classrooms,” notes Robert Stevens, professor of educational psychology. This is borne out in a 2002 report by the President’s Commission of Excellence in Special Education, which reveals a startling statistic: Of nearly 3 million children identified as having specific learning disabilities, 80 percent are identified as such because they haven’t learned how to read. At one Pennsylvania school district, administrators noticed that a growing percentage of its students were enrolled in special education programs. To seek ways to reverse the trend, the district turned to Penn State’s Educational Psychology program. The Penn State researchers answered the call by developing an early-intervention reading model known as Reading and Intensive Learning Strategies (RAILS).
With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Stevens worked with faculty member Peggy Van Meter, associate professor of educational psychology; former graduate students Joanna Garner and Cindy Bochna; current graduate student Nicholas Warcholak; and former faculty member Tracey Hall. The researchers implemented RAILS for a four-year period at three of the school district’s high-poverty, low-achieving elementary schools. RAILS provides K–2 children with a second reading period each day to supplement an earlier 60–90 minute reading period. The second period gives the students time for additional practice on what was taught in the morning session, thus enhancing their retention of newly learned skills and vocabulary.
In subsequent standardized tests, children in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade who had spent 1–2 years in the RAILS program significantly outperformed those in non-RAILS classes on measures of reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading fluency, and word attack skills.
In subsequent standardized tests, children in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade who had spent 1–2 years in the RAILS program significantly outperformed those in non-RAILS classes on measures of reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading fluency, and word attack skills.