Date
3-10-2026
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)
Chair
Melinda Carver
Keywords
reading intervention, UFLI, i-Ready, third grade, struggling readers, dyslexia, literacy proficiency
Disciplines
Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research
Recommended Citation
Kehrer, Vada, "A Quantitative Quasi-Experimental Study to Determine the Effectiveness of UFLI and iReady Interventions for Third Grade Struggling Readers" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7966.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7966
Abstract
The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was to determine whether there is a significant difference in the growth in reading proficiency among third-grade struggling readers receiving different reading intervention programs: the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) or i-Ready curriculum-based interventions. The study is important because the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has reported a concerning decline in literacy rates, particularly among students with dyslexia. The persistence of decline in reading proficiency stresses the urgent need for effective reading interventions. This study contributes to the existing literature on reading intervention programs for struggling readers. The sample included 128 third-grade students in a southern public school district who were reading below grade level. Data were collected from the 2024/2025 FAST reading assessment, specifically from PM1 through PM3. The results indicated a significant difference in the growth of reading proficiency for third-grade struggling students between the intervention programs they received. The results indicated that the i-Ready curriculum-based interventions had a greater impact on improving reading growth. The results indicated that i-Ready curriculum-based interventions were associated with statistically significant improvements in reading outcomes after controlling for baseline proficiency. However, causal conclusions are limited by the quasi-experimental design. It is recommended that future research replicate these findings using randomized or matched designs across diverse MTSS contexts and incorporate multiple reading outcome measures to clarify which instructional components most strongly drive student growth.
