Determining the Impact of the Leveled Literacy Intervention Blue System on Second-Grade Students' Measures of Academic Progress Assessment RIT Scores: A Regression Analysis Study

Abstract

In the state of Wisconsin, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) expects. schools to test students in grades two through five three times annually in reading and mathematics with the Northwest Evaluation Association™ (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP) assessment. The MAP assessment, a computerized benchmark evaluation, reports students' progress immediately in RIT (based on the Item Response Theory designed by Georg Rasch) scores ("The RIT Scale," 2014). The purpose of this study was to determine whether a positive relationship exists between one prescribed research-based reading intervention program, the Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) Blue System (2008), and students' scores from the MAP reading assessment. The study examined student growth within the program and a comparison of the RIT score performance on the reading assessments from the Winter 2014 to the Spring 2014 MAP testing sessions. The researcher synthesized data from one expe1imental group of identified second grade struggling readers that participated in the LLI program and one control group of identified second grade struggling readers that participated in alternate instruction for reading intervention. The researcher found significant difference with a F-value of 56.26 and a p-value of0.00013 for the Experimental Group A; and a F-value of 4.32 and a p-value of0.076 for the Control Group. Participation in the LLI made a difference in students' reading MAP RIT scores. Recommended future research included intensive study addressing the commonality between the reading skills taught in the LLI, the skills assessed on the reading MAP test, and the required grade-level Common Core State Standards. This recommendation is the most authentic as it would use available resources, provide help to teachers in informing instruction, and ensure the expectations to instruct, assess, and intervene work collaboratively.