9/26/2024
Evaluation of Lexia PowerUp Literacy as a Districtwide Reading Intervention
PURPOSE: There is a concerning number of students in middle and high school who lack fundamental reading skills. To address this issue, educators at a large Southeast school district decided to use Lexia® PowerUp Literacy® with Tier 3 students in grades 6–10.
METHOD: In this quasi-experimental study, a comparison was made between students who used PowerUp and students who did not use the program. The state English Language Arts (ELA) test was used to assess reading. It is given each spring as a summative test. The ELA test given in spring 2021–2022—prior to PowerUp use—served as a pretest. A “difference in differences” (DID) approach was used to estimate the effect of PowerUp on ELA scores. This approach takes the average outcome (posttest minus pretest) for treatment students and SUBTRACTS the average outcome for control students.
KEY FINDINGS
- The DID approach showed a significant effect of PowerUp with an average effect size of 0.14.
- The effect size for the subgroup of English Learners was 0.25.
- Students who started PowerUp early in the school year and used it for at least an hour per week experienced higher gain scores.
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