AUTHOR=Piquette Noella A. , Savage Robert S. , Abrami Philip C. 

TITLE=A cluster randomized control field trial of the ABRACADABRA web-based reading technology: replication and extension of basic findings

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01413

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01413

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>The present paper reports a cluster randomized control trial evaluation of teaching using ABRACADABRA (ABRA), an evidence-based and web-based literacy intervention (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://abralite.concordia.ca" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">http://abralite.concordia.ca</ext-link>) with 107 kindergarten and 96 grade 1 children in 24 classes (12 intervention 12 control classes) from all 12 elementary schools in one school district in Canada. Children in the intervention condition received 10–12 h of whole class instruction using ABRA between pre- and post-test. Hierarchical linear modeling of post-test results showed significant gains in letter-sound knowledge for intervention classrooms over control classrooms. In addition, medium effect sizes were evident for three of five outcome measures favoring the intervention: letter-sound knowledge (<italic>d</italic>= +0.66), phonological blending (<italic>d</italic> = +0.52), and word reading (<italic>d</italic> = +0.52), over effect sizes for regular teaching. It is concluded that regular teaching with ABRA technology adds significantly to literacy in the early elementary years.</p>