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14-12-2023 | Original research

Improving US Elementary School Reading Comprehension through Knowledge Acquisition and Transformation

Authors: Herb Turner, Annette Turner

Published in: Technology, Knowledge and Learning | Issue 3/2024

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Abstract

Reading comprehension is among the most challenging and complex skills to teach and research. Doing both well is critical to improving the reading comprehension proficiency of 67% of grade 4 students in U.S. public schools who scored below basic on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress. This Chapter presents Knowledge Acquisition and Transformation (KAT) as a model of an evidence-based technology reading comprehension intervention. With a decade-long history of intervention design, development, and evaluation, KAT has caused positive, meaningful, and statistically significant effects on upper elementary students’ reading comprehension. KAT developers accomplished this by integrating theory, practice, technology, and evidence while progressing through iterative cycles of intervention development and evaluation.

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Appendix
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Footnotes
1
[1]The meta-analysis did not report the improvement index. The lead author of this article calculated it by converting Hedges g into Cohen’s U3 index, which is the proportion of comparison group students outperformed by average intervention student and subtracting it (after multiplying the proportion by 100) from 50 percent [see WWC, 2022, p. 185 and 186.
 
2
[2]The RCT for grades 4 and 5 met standards without reservations but the RCT for grades 7 met standards with reservations.
 
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Metadata
Title
Improving US Elementary School Reading Comprehension through Knowledge Acquisition and Transformation
Authors
Herb Turner
Annette Turner
Publication date
14-12-2023
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Technology, Knowledge and Learning / Issue 3/2024
Print ISSN: 2211-1662
Electronic ISSN: 2211-1670
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-023-09708-z

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