At a glance
- Program: Read 180®
- Subjects: Literacy Curriculum, Intervention Curriculum
- Report Type: Efficacy Study
- Grade Level: High
- Region: Southeast
- Population: Students with Disabilities, Students with Specific Learning Disabilities
- District Urbanicity: Suburban, Rural
- District Size: Large
- Implementation Model: 40-59 Minutes, 60-79 Minutes, 80+ Minutes, A/B Model
Ninth-grade READ 180 students with specific learning disabilities exceeded expected yearly growth benchmarks on the FCAT Reading.
Hernando County School District (HCSD) is located on the central-west coast of Florida, north of Tampa Bay. Of the 22,820 students the district enrolls, approximately 74% are White, 13% are Hispanic, 7% are African American, 5% are Native American/multiracial, and 1% are Asian. Approximately 16% of students are classified as having disabilities. During the 2009 to 2010 school year, ninth-grade students who scored in Level 1 or Level 2 on the spring 2009 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Reading Test were placed into READ 180 .
Spring 2009 and spring 2010 FCAT® Reading Developmental Scale Score (DSS) data were analyzed for 436 ninth-grade READ 180 students. As Graph 1 shows, these students achieved an average FCAT Reading DSS score of 1679 at pretest and 1768 at posttest, resulting in a statistically significant gain of 89 points.
![4 2 Hernando Graph 1](https://s3.amazonaws.com/prod-hmhco-vmg-craftcms-public/_transforms/research/_xlarge/4.2_Hernando-Graph-1.png)
GRAPH 1. Hernando County School District READ 180 Students, Grade 9 (N=436)
Performance on FCAT Reading Test, 2009 to 2010
Note. The change in DSS score from 2009 to 2010 is statistically significant (t=9.81, p=.00).
These improvements in performance were maintained when the data were disaggregated, revealing that students with disabilities also demonstrated statistically significant gains (Graph 2). Approximately two-thirds of students with disabilities include those diagnosed with a specific learning disability, including dyslexia. As Graph 3 illustrates, students with a specific learning disability showed the greatest average DSS gain and exceeded expected yearly growth benchmarks on the FCAT Reading Test in 2010.
![1 6 Hernando Graph 1](https://s3.amazonaws.com/prod-hmhco-vmg-craftcms-public/_transforms/research/_xlarge/1.6_Hernando-Graph-1.png)
GRAPH 2. Hernando County School District READ 180 Students, Grade 9 (N=436)
Performance on FCAT Reading Test with Disabilities and without Disabilities, 2009 to 2010
Note. The gain is statistically significant for students with disabilities (t=9.83, p=.00) and for students without disabilities (t=3.35, p=.00).
![1 6 Hernando Graph 2](https://s3.amazonaws.com/prod-hmhco-vmg-craftcms-public/_transforms/research/_xlarge/1.6_Hernando-Graph-2.png)
GRAPH 3. Hernando County School District READ 180 Students with Disabilities, Grade 9 (N=99)
Change in DSS Scale Score on FCAT Reading Test by Disability, 2009 to 2010
Note. The gain is statistically significant for all students with disabilities (t=3.35, p=.00).