Accelerating oral reading fluency in a professional development school: effects of UFLI Foundations versus district curriculum on Tier 2 interventions with second-grade students
Doreen L. Mazzye, Randall Stetson, Rhonda ZajacPurpose
This study reports on a professional development school (PDS) partnership examining the effects of UFLI Foundations: An Explicit and Systematic Phonics Program (Lane & Contesse, 2022) on Tier 2 reading interventions with at-risk second-grade students in an urban elementary school.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, both the intervention group and comparison group were provided with instruction aligned to the science of reading (SoR). Participants included 52 second-grade students from a single school district, who received either UFLI Foundations (n = 29) or district curriculum (n = 23). Universal screening measures of oral reading fluency (ORF), correct letter sounds and nonsense word reading skills were collected at fall, winter and spring time points. Mixed between-within subjects analyses examined growth patterns and intervention effects across three reading measures.
Findings
Significant main effects of time were observed across all measures, indicating overall student growth. A significant Time × Intervention interaction emerged for ORF, with UFLI students demonstrating steeper growth. The UFLI group demonstrated a statistically significant 17.5 words correct per minute growth advantage over the district group, while both groups demonstrated similar patterns of improvement in letter-sound correspondence fluency and nonsense word fluency.
Practical implications
Implications are discussed for strengthening multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) through consistent intervention design and implementation, sustained teacher learning and school–university partnerships that foster both student achievement and professional growth.
Originality/value
Findings highlight the potential of structured, evidence-aligned Tier 2 curricula to improve reading outcomes, while underscoring the value of PDS-based professional development during implementation.