The 'links' between literacy growth: Do some students benefit more from intervention than others?

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to administer a program review of the LINKS afterschool tutoring initiative at Salem Elementary School in Sackville, New Brunswick. The research aimed to address the effectiveness of the intervention strategy and highlight any measures that might serve as predictive factors with respect to success in the LINKS program. Eleven students were recruited for the LINKS after-school tutoring program (mean age = 92.36 months; 81.80% male). At the beginning of the LINKS program, participants were assessed by a research assistant on a series of literacy-related measures concerning phonological awareness, oral vocabulary, and spelling dictation items. At the end of the term, the tutor repeated the spelling dictation task performed prior to intervention. Each tutor performed a pre- and a post-assessment with their student on measures of sight word reading, nonsense word decoding, and spelling ability. The results revealed all literacy areas demonstrated significant improvement over the intervention period. Moreover, phonological awareness prior to intervention was a significant predictor of relative success in the LINKS program. The present study illustrates the overall benefit of including a tier-two intervention program within the general curriculum of the school system.