Comparing Students With and Without Reading Difficulties on Reading Comprehension Assessments: A Meta-Analysis

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Special Education

Background:

• Reading comprehension is crucial for academic success.
• Students with reading difficulties (RD) often show lower comprehension than typically developing (TD) peers.
• Understanding factors influencing the achievement gap is vital for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To meta-analytically examine if the achievement gap in reading comprehension between RD and TD students varies by assessment response format.
• To identify potential moderators influencing this gap across different formats.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review identifying 82 studies with K-12 students.
• Calculation of Hedge's g standardized mean difference effect sizes.
• Random effects robust variance estimation to aggregate effect sizes per response format.

Main Results:

• The achievement gap varied significantly by response format (e.g., larger for picture selection, smaller for retell).
• Metaregression analyses for multiple-choice, cloze, and open-ended formats did not reveal clear patterns for moderators of heterogeneity.
• Effect sizes for picture selection (ES_g = -1.80) and retell (ES_g = -0.60) demonstrate differential gap sizes.

Conclusions:

• The choice of reading comprehension response format can influence the observed achievement gap between students with RD and TD students.
• Further research is needed to explore moderators of this heterogeneity, particularly for common assessment formats.