The effects of the sing, spell, read and write program on reading achievement of beginning readers

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
“Sing, Spell, Read, and Write” (SSRW) was designed for teaching reading, writing, spelling, and speaking in kindergarten through Grade 3. Throughout the program there is a strong phonics orientation. Given the growth of SSRW in schools across the United States, the present study was designed to evaluate its effectiveness in a large metropolitan school district. Eight randomly selected SSRW schools were divided into three strata (high, middle, and low) on the basis of socioeconomic status and were individually matched at the school and class level with nine comparison schools on the basis of socioeconomic status, racial makeup, and standardized achievement scores. Analysis of reading, writing, and spelling scores indicated that SSRW was somewhat more effective than the traditional (basal) curriculum for teaching word attack and letter‐word identification, especially for students in low‐stratum schools. For more complex language skills, such as writing and oral reading comprehension, SSRW was not more effective than the conventional curriculum.