A web-based intelligent tutoring system for reading comprehension delivered to fifth-grade students attending high-poverty schools: Results from a replication efficacy study.

Reading comprehension is an essential skill for academic success in K-12 settings and professional success beyond schooling. Unfortunately, approximately 33% of students fail to master this essential skill in elementary grades. Students attending high-poverty schools are at a bigger disadvantage due to high teacher turnover and lack of high-quality instruction. Recent efficacy studies with upper elementary-grade students attending rural and suburban schools have revealed that the text structure strategy focused on generating main ideas and summarization and delivered by a web-based intelligent tutor for structure strategy (ITSS) had a positive impact on reading comprehension measured by standardized and researcher-designed measures. The current study focused on replicating these findings with fifth-grade students attending high-poverty schools. A cluster randomized controlled trial with 33 elementary schools was conducted with 2-day teacher practice-based professional development, pretests at the beginning of the academic year, followed by a year-long implementation of the ITSS with coaching and modeling for teachers to provide consistent instruction, and posttests administered at the end of the academic year. Multilevel analysis of data revealed large effects on researcher-designed measures related to writing the main idea and recall (effect sizes ranged from 0.97 to 1.32). A small, yet not statistically significant, effect (effect size = 0.23) was found that favored the intervention classrooms on the standardized Gray silent reading test. These results replicate findings from previous studies on the ITSS. The positive results provide additional evidence of the impact of ITSS on reading comprehension for students attending high-poverty schools who need support the most.