blog posts and news stories

Final Report Released on The Efficacy of PCI’s Reading Program

Empirical has released the final report of a three-year longitudinal study on the efficacy of the PCI Reading Program, which can be found on our reports page. This study, the first formal assessment of the PCI Reading Program, evaluated the program among a sample of third- through eighth-grade students with supported-level disabilities in Florida’s Brevard Public Schools and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The primary goal of the study was to identify whether the program could achieve its intended purpose of teaching specific sight words. The study was completed in three “phases,” or school years. The results from Phase 1 and 2 showed a significant positive effect on student sight word achievement and Phase 2 supported the initial expectation that two years of growth would be greater than one year (read more on results of Phase 1 and Phase 2).

“Working with Empirical Education was a win for us on many fronts. Their research was of the highest quality and has really helped us communicate with our customers through their several reports and conference presentations. They went beyond just outcomes to show how teachers put our reading program to use in classrooms. In all their dealings with PCI and with the school systems they were highly professional and we look forward to future research partnership opportunities.” - Lee Wilson, President & CEO, PCI Educational Publishing

In Phase 3, the remaining sample of students was too small to conduct any impact analyses, so researchers investigated patterns in students’ progress through the program. The general findings were positive in that the exploration confirmed that students continue to learn more sight words with a second year of exposure to PCI although at a slower pace than expected by the developers. Furthermore, findings across all three phases show high levels of teacher satisfaction with the program. Along with this positive outcome, teacher-reported student engagement levels were also high.

Empirical Education at AERA 2011

Empirical is excited to announce that we will again have a strong showing at the 2011 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Conference. Join us in festive New Orleans, LA, April 8-12 for the final results on the efficacy of the PCI Reading Program, our findings from the first year of formative research on our MeasureResults program evaluation tool, and more. Visit our website in the coming months to view our AERA presentation schedule and details about our annual reception—we hope to see you there!

Report Released on Phase Two of The Efficacy of PCI’s Reading Program

The results are in for Phase Two of a five year longitudinal efficacy trial of PCI’s Reading Program for students with moderate to severe disabilities. This research builds upon an initial randomized control trial conducted last year that found that students in the PCI program had substantial success in learning sight words in comparison to students in the control group. Phase Two continues research in the Brevard and Miami–Dade County school districts with teachers of supported-level students in grades 3-8. Using both quasi-experimental and extra-experimental methods, findings again demonstrate that students who received PCI for two years achieved significantly higher scores on the sight word assessment than students who were not exposed to the program. However, student progress through the program was slower than initially expected by the developers. Empirical will continue to collect, integrate, and analyze outcomes for three more years.

The methodological designs for this study were presented at this year’s annual SREE conference in Washington, D.C. Results for this study will also be presented at the 2010 Annual AERA Meeting in Denver, CO. Meet the research team as they describe the study in further detail during the Division C poster session on May 3.

Report Released on The Efficacy of PCI’s Reading Program — Level One

Empirical Education and PCI Education have released the results of a one-year randomized control trial on the efficacy of PCI’s Reading Program — Level 1 for students with moderate to severe disabilities. Conducted in the Brevard and Miami-Dade County school districts, the study found that, after one year, students in the PCI program had substantial success in learning sight words in comparison to students in the control group — equivalent to a 21 percentile point difference. Though researchers found that students’ grade level had no effect on achievement with the program, they found a small moderating effect of the phonological pre-assessment: students starting with greater phonological skills benefit more from PCI than students starting with lower scores. This report will be presented at the 2009 AERA conference in San Diego, CA. A four-year follow-on study is being conducted with a larger group of students in Florida.