The Efficacy of Integrating Engaged Learners Into Small Group Reading Instruction on Reading and Attention Outcomes: A Randomized Controlled Trial

We investigate the efficacy of a reading intervention integrated with Engaged Learners, a program that applies behavioral and cognitive principles to increase student behavioral attention and reduce distractions during instruction. Using a three-arm randomized controlled trial, we randomized 159 Grade 3–5 students with co-occurring reading and behavioral attention challenges to a researcher-implemented small group reading intervention with Engaged Learners (READ + ENGAGE), an identical researcher-implemented reading intervention without Engaged Learners (READ), or a Business-as-Usual (BaU) condition. The READ + ENGAGE condition students demonstrated statistically significant greater behavioral attention according to direct observations and interventionist reports than READ condition students. The pattern of reading effect sizes contrasting the conditions suggests that the READ + ENGAGE and READ conditions were associated with higher performance on reading outcomes than the BaU condition and students in the READ condition significantly outperformed the BaU condition on measures of word reading, fluency and reading comprehension, and mid-transfer vocabulary and reading comprehension. We also explored whether integrating the Engaged Learners program in a reading intervention would be associated with improved reading outcomes by contrasting the READ + ENGAGE to the READ condition; however, the findings did not support this hypothesis. Future research could examine the effects of systematically fading the Engaged Learner supports over time and implementing the intervention over a longer duration. These findings demonstrate that an integrated intervention can be implemented with minimal training and coaching, increasing behavioral attention to reading instruction during small-group instruction for upper elementary students with co-occurring reading and behavioral attention challenges.