NCEE Studies A Reading Intervention for Adult ESL Learners

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Adult ESL programs are designed to assist students in their efforts to acquire literacy and language skills by providing instruction through local education agencies, community colleges, and community-based organizations. The content of instruction within ESL classes varies widely and there is little rigorous research that identifies effective instruction.

The report, The Impact of a Reading Intervention for Low-Literate Adult ESL Learners, by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance at the Institute of Education Sciences, uses data collected from 1,137 adult ESL learners in two cohorts across ten sites in four states. Adult ESL teachers and learners were assigned by lottery to either classrooms using the basal reader Sam and Pat, Volume I , or classrooms using the site’s usual curriculum.

Because learners often do not consistently attend adult ESL programs over an extended period of time, English language and reading outcomes were assessed at the beginning and end of one semester for both cohorts of students. Classroom instruction was measured via classroom observations conducted one time in each classroom.

Key findings include:

• More reading instruction was observed in Sam and Pat classes, while more English language instruction was observed in control classes.

• Although students in both groups of classes made gains in reading and English language skills, no differences in reading and English language outcomes were found between students in the Sam and Pat group and students in the control group.

• There were no impacts of Sam and Pat on reading and English language outcomes for five of six subgroups examined: learners whose native language is based upon a non-Roman alphabet, native Spanish speakers, learners with relatively higher levels of literacy at the start of the study, learners from the first study cohort, and learners from the second study cohort.

• For learners with relatively lower levels of literacy at the start of the study, there was some suggestive evidence of a positive impact on reading outcomes. Among this subset of learners, Sam and Pat group students scored higher on the Woodcock Johnson word attack (decoding) assessment than control group students. The effect size (.16) is estimated to be equivalent to approximately 1 1/2 to 2 months of growth, based upon norms provided by the test publisher. However, it is possible that the effect is due to chance alone.