Validation

Overview of the Validation and Effectiveness Of the StudyDog Reading Program

The StudyDog Reading Program has been implemented with poverty-level children, enrolled in Kindergarten through second-grade, who are struggling to learn to read in seventeen public schools in Oregon and Washington and in an after-school program in St. Louis, Missouri. Several studies of the reading performance of these children were undertaken to explore five critical questions about the StudyDog Reading Program. These questions are:

1. Are the critical reading skills included in the StudyDog Reading Program?
2. Do children show mastery of StudyDog’s reading skills?
3. Is there experimental proof of StudyDog’s effectiveness?
4. How does StudyDog’s effectiveness compare to other teaching methods?
5. To what extent can StudyDog leverage teachers’ time in order to provide one-on- one reading instruction?

Results
Evidence of the validity and effectiveness of the StudyDog Reading Program, that it effectively teaches children important reading skills, shows that:

1. The right skills are included in the reading curriculum;
2. Children learn to master the reading skills that are taught;
3. The mastery of skills is attributable to StudyDog and not other conditions;
4. StudyDog has a larger impact on children’s reading than most other reading programs;
5. Teachers can provide one-on-one reading instruction to students for as many children as they can manage.

Collectively, StudyDog is shown to be a highly effective program for teaching young children basic reading skills they need to become successful readers.

Read Full Validation Report here (PDF)