Predicting Writing Fluency Growth for Elementary-Aged Children

1. Predicting Writing Fluency Growth for Elementary-Aged Children Adrea J. Truckenmiller, Tanya L. Eckert, Jennifer L. Rymanowski, Jennifer L. Koehler, & Elizabeth A. Koenig Syracuse University, Department of Psychology Treatment Research in Academic Competence This project was supported, in part, by a NASP Graduate Student Research Award • Introduction • Large strides have been made in improving written expression outcomes in elementary-aged children, namely by targeting writing fluency (Berninger et al., 2006), and in formatively measuring writing fluency (McMaster & Campbell, 2008). Less is known regarding the effects of fluency-based interventions on students’ writing fluency growth over a progress-monitoring period. Recent trends in school psychological service delivery (i.e., Response to Intervention) require that interventions be evaluated over a period of time as short as six weeks (Gresham, 2007). Therefore, it is important to explore and understand the expected rate of elementary-aged students’ writing fluency growth over short intervals in response to practice with writing and writing fluency intervention, as well as to explore variables that affect writing fluency. • We hypothesized that: • Students receiving performance feedback would have a higher rate of growth than students practicing written composition, and students receiving feedback in an unrelated academic skill. • Students receiving only practice with written composition would have a higher growth rate than students not receiving weekly practice. • Female students would have a higher level of writing fluency than male students and rate of growth would differ depending on sex. Procedures Results supported hypothesis #1, t (591) = 5.38, p < .001 Results did NOT support hypothesis #2, t (591) = -2.15, p < .05 • Dependent Variables • Curriculum-Based Measurement in • Written Expression (CBM-WE) • probes (McMaster & Campbell, • 2006) were administered to students • at each measurement point and • were evaluated for total number of • words written (TWW) and number • of correct writing sequences (CWS; • Shapiro, 2004). • Independent Variables • Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: • Performance feedback condition (n=46) – students received feedback on the TWW he/she wrote in response to a 3-minute CBM-WE probe each week for eight weeks • Practice-only condition (n=39) – students simply responded to a 3-minute CBM-WE probe each week for eight weeks • Instructional control condition (n=48) – students received feedback on the number of digits computed correctly on 2- minute mixed addition and subtraction probes (Shinn, 2004). During sessions 1, 4, and 8, these students responded to a CBM-WE probe. • Weekly sessions for the three groups were run concurrently. Hypothesis #3: Female students had a higher level of writing fluency at baseline and at the end of the study, t (593) = 2.88, p < .001. Sex did not differentially predict differences in writing fluency growth, t (592) = 1.48, p = .14. Results Multilevel modeling procedures (Singer & Willet, 2003) were used to estimate growth and final level of writing fluency. Students’ school assignment significantly predicted growth in writing fluency (even though baseline fluency was equivalent) and was included in the model as a control variable. The three hypothesis tests yielded similar results for both TWW and CWS; results are displayed for TWW only. Model estimates of weekly growth rates for each condition (standard errors in parentheses) are listed in the table below. Discussion These data provide further experimental evidence supporting use of performance feedback as an intervention for elementary-aged children’s growth in writing fluency (Eckert et al., 2006; Eckert et al., 2008). However, simple, weekly practice with CBM-WE did not produce significant positive growth in writing fluency. Ultimately this result suggests that simply increasing practice with CBM-WE will not be an effective intervention. Since boys write less than girls and do not have a higher rate of growth when provided with an intervention, it will be very important to at least include performance feedback in an intervention and identify other interventions that produce high rates of growth, especially for students performing at a lower level of writing fluency. • Participants and Setting • Students were recruited from three elementary schools located in a mid-sized city in the Northeast. • A total of 133 third-grade students enrolled in nine general educational classrooms participated. • Slightly more female (53%) than male students participated. • Most of the students self-identified their race and ethnic background as Black or African American (74%) or White (18%). • A large percentage of participants (78%) were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.