Figure 5 depicts measures of individual performance on specific word and sentence reading skills and provides additional verification of outcomes. Well over 90% of children tested have demonstrated substantial improvement in their ability to read words, sentences and short stories. The outcomes represented in Figure 5 show words read correctly in printed Headsprout Readers. These data show reliability of effects (accurate story reading) during systematic replication for initially non-reading pre-schoolers during developmental testing. There was a minimum of 15 children tested in each phase to ensure a reliable systematic replication. Each pair of bars represents the pretest and posttest number of words read correctly in each storybook. Prolonged hesitations and self-corrections were scored as errors along with word substitution and failure to read a word. There are six full-color "Headsprout Reader Storybooks" in the program. Increased accuracy in pretest scores across episodes was a function of words learned in previous phases occurring in later storybooks.
Figure 5. Systematic replication depicting the reliability of effects (accurate story reading) for initially non-reading preschoolers during developmental testing. Data are for a minimum of 15 individual learners per testing phase (increasingly complex reading passages). Pretest corrects in post phase 1 (See!) indicate carryover of words learned in previous passages that were reused in later stories. Number of words (indicated by the bar) read correctly (dark area) on first try on pretests and posttests using Headsprout Reading Basics storybooks.
Figure 6 indicates how carefully designed instructional sequences provide a stability of effect across numerous learners. Over 90% of our learners average over 90% correct responding in the program, and complete several learning objectives within each approximately 20-minute lesson. Learners engage in approximately 190 individual interactions (or learn units, [after Greer, 1994] with each interaction comprising a presentation, a response, and a consequence), and an average over 180 correct responses per lesson. The program is highly interactive--learners engage in over 9 responses per minute, across all 40 episodes.
Figure 6. Summary of program outcomes for Headsprout Reading Basics. Means calculated for over 1000 learners.
The Woodcock-Johnson Letter-Word Identification subtest (Woodcock, McGrew & Mather, 2001), was administered to 20 initial primarily Pre-K children after the completion of 40, 20-minute lessons (less than 15 hours of instruction) as part of in-house developmental testing. Figure 7 shows a mean gain for the 20 children of one year, moving from a grade-level score of 0.5 (Kindergarten 5th month) to grade 1.5.
Figure 7. Mean grade-level scores for 20 initial developmental testing completers on the Woodcock Johnson Letter-Word Identification Subtest prior to and after finishing Headsprout Reading Basics.
Early field-testing standardized test scores for 30 kindergarten students from Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Seattle, WA, shown in Figure 8, support the data derived from criterion-referenced tests, and standardized tests administered during developmental testing for individual students. The school demographics were:
| American Indian: | 1 % |
| Asian: | 13 % |
| African American: | 63 % |
| Latino | 17 % |
| Caucasian: | 6 % |
| Total: (309 students) | 100 % |
Twenty-three students were tested on the Diagnostic Reading Assessment (DRA) test (scheduling conflicts accounted for the difference in test participants). On the DRA, 100% of the students scored at or above grade level with 82% of the kindergarten students scoring from early to mid first grade. In prior years no more than 50% of students scored a grade level.
Figure 8. Effects on DRA outcomes of supplementing an existing Kindergarten curriculum with Headsprout Reading Basics. Previous years (light bars) are compared to 2001-2002 (dark bars) Kindergarten student scores.
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