Research

The Breaking the “Sound” Barrier program was developed through continuous evaluation and modification of instructional strategies that produced noticeable reading achievement gains in children with learning disabilities. As students progressed through the program, I saw that their reading scores on achievement tests and state-wide assessments improved, in some cases dramatically. However, my observations were not enough evidence to claim that Breaking the “Sound” Barrier was an evidence-based program. That’s why, in 2007, I worked with researchers who systematically analyzed the results of 64 students in middle school who received at least 1 year of remediation using Breaking the “Sound” Barrier. Click on the links to learn more about this research and the results.

Breaking the “Sound” Barrier to Fluent Reading: An Evaluation of a Middle-School Reading Intervention Program

By

Kimberly Simmerman
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of
Doctor of Psychology
February 2008

Purpose:  The Breaking the “Sound’ Barrier to Fluent Reading program (Breaking the “Sound” Barrier; Martin, 2008) is a systematic curriculum that was developed through continuous evaluation and modification of instructional strategies that produced noticeable reading achievement gains in children with learning disabilities.  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of this specific instructional system on reading proficiency and performance in a sample of middle-school students.

This study attempted to answer the following questions:

• Do students demonstrate progress on individually administered tests of academic achievement after receiving instruction using Breaking the “Sound” Barrier?
• Do students demonstrate progress on group statewide achievement tests after receiving instruction usingBreaking the “Sound” Barrier?
• Does IQ impact students’ progress on individually administered achievement and group statewide achievement tests administered after receiving instruction using Breaking the “Sound” Barrier?

 
Methods:  The participants in this study were 64 students in fifth through eighth grades who attended a rural public school district in Pennsylvania.  All participants received special education services under IDEA at the time of the intervention, and each had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to address his or her specific instructional needs.  Each participant received classroom-based reading instruction using Breaking the “Sound” Barrier.

Student performance was retrospectively analyzed using student test scores from standardized tests that were routinely administered according to the progress-monitoring practices adopted by the school district. Student test scores on the following standard tests were analyzed:

• Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (K-TEA)
• Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA)
• Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth Edition (SAT-9)

 
Data collection spanned a period of approximately 9 years, from September 1998 through June 2006.  No single participant was represented more than once throughout the sample.  Student test scores before and after reading intervention with Breaking the “Sound” Barrier were analyzed using a repeated measures t-test.  Repeated measures t-tests were also performed on a control group of 31 students to determine their performance on the PSSA relative to the study sample.

Results

Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement: Following the first year of intervention using Breaking the “Sound” Barrier, there was significant improvement  on the K-TEA in the areas of Reading Decoding (t = -8.967, df = 43, p < 0.001, two-tailed), Spelling (t = -9.334, df = 49, p < 0.001, two-tailed), Reading Comprehension (t = -10.446, df = 42, p < 0.001, two-tailed), and overall reading as measured by the K-TEA Reading Composite (t = -12.756, df = 50, p < 0.001, two-tailed).

A secondary analysis was performed to determine the effects of IQ on test performance.  Students with Verbal IQ (VIQ) scores that fell within the Below Average range (VIQ < 89) demonstrated significant improvement on theK-TEA in all areas: Reading Decoding (t = -2.376, df = 8, p < 0.05), Spelling (t = -6.500, df = 10, p < 0.001), Reading Comprehension (t = -3.257, df = 7, p < 0.05), and overall reading as measured by the Reading Composite (t = 3.907, df = 10, p < 0.005).

Students with VIQ scores that fell within the Average range (VIQ 90-109) demonstrated significant improvement in all areas of reading achievement measured by the K-TEA: Reading Decoding (t = -0.676, df = 20, p < 0.001), Spelling (t = -5.238, df = 24, p < 0.001), Reading Comprehension (t = -6.659, df = 20, p < 0.001), and overall reading as measured by the Reading Composite (t = -10.162, df = 25, p < 0.001).

Since there were only two students in the IQ category with VIQ scores that fell within the Above Average range (VIQ < 110), analyses were not performed.

Pennsylvania System of School Assessment: Participants demonstrated significant improvement on the PSSA following intervention (t = -2.983, df = 57, p = 0.004).  Subjects in the study group increased their scores by an average of 73.27 points following instruction with Breaking the “Sound” Barrier.  T-tests were performed on a control group of students who took the PSSAs and received reading remediation during the same time period using an alternative reading program.  Participants who did not receive the study program did not increase their PSSA scores from pre-intervention levels (t = .713, df = 30, p = 0.482).  Despite remediation their mean scores decreased by an average of 19.45 points.

Student PSSA scores following intervention with Breaking the “Sound” Barrier were further analyzed to determine whether the participants’ improvement, though statistically significant, was educationally relevant as indicated by advancement through PSSA categories.  At baseline, 63% of the students in the study group achieved PSSA scores in the Below Basic category and 37% achieved PSSA scores in the Basic category.  Following intervention, the study group achieved these final PSSA categories: Below Basic (25.9%), Basic (25.9%), Proficient (33.3%), and Advanced (14.8%).

These same data were analyzed for the control group, who did not receive Breaking the “Sound” Barrierinstruction. Their baseline PSSA category distribution was as follows: Below Basic (87.1%) and Basic (12.9%).  Following remedial reading instruction, their PSSA category distribution was as follows: Below Basic (77.4%), Basic (16.1%), Proficient (3.2%), and Advanced (3.2%).

A secondary analysis was performed to determine the effect of IQ on postintervention PSSA test performance (Table).  These results indicate that VIQ was moderately correlated with PSSA baseline performance (Pearson Correlation = .463, p < 0.05), but no correlation was detected between VIQ and PSSA final (postintervention) scores.  No correlation was found between Performance (PIQ) and Full-Scale IQ (FSIQ) and PSSA baseline or final scores.

Table:  The Effect of IQ on Postintervention PSSA Scores

Summary

In conclusion, following one year on instruction with Breaking the “Sound” Barrier, students improved their reading skills in the areas of reading comprehension, spelling, and decoding, thus boosting their overall reading performance.  Participants of all intellectual levels demonstrated improvement in all areas of reading achievement measured by the K-TEA (comprehension, spelling, and decoding).  In addition, students who received intervention using Breaking the “Sound” Barrier demonstrated significant improvement on group state-wide assessment scores, as indicated by the PSSA, suggesting that students were able to generalize their skills and put them into practice beyond the classroom environment and under standardized assessment conditions.  Students in the control group who received alternative reading remediation did not demonstrate similar improvement on the PSSA scores.  These preliminary findings support the efficacy of Breaking the “Sound” Barrier and provide strong support for further exploration into this program in future studies.

An additional finding of relevance is the advancement of children through the PSSA categories as their skills improved following instruction with Breaking the “Sound” Barrier.  As supported by the data, students who received instruction using the study program not only demonstrated statistically significant improvement on their PSSA scores, but also advanced through the PSSA categories, with almost half of the study group achieving scores of proficient or advanced after intervention.  Such improvement is educationally relevant for public schools and parents since a substantial number of struggling readers are not proficient, both by classroom and state standards.  These findings suggest that students who struggle at the beginning of middle school still may have a chance to improve their scores to the point of proficiency.