ISRCTN - ISRCTN63925615: Evaluation of the Catch Up Literacy intervention

Plain English Summary

Background and study aims
Catch Up Literacy is a programme for learners who find reading difficult. It can be delivered by any trained staff including teachers, teaching assistants and carers. In this study we aim to find out the impact of this programme on underperforming students when delivered by trained teaching assistants.

Who can participate?
Year 6 children studying at the participating schools. Seventeen secondary schools will recruit two part time teaching assistants (TAs) who will work with the secondary schools' feeder primary schools.

What does the study involve?
The project will see teaching assistants delivering Catch Up to children at the end of Year 6 and to these same children throughout Year 7. Students are randomly allocated to treatment group or the control group. Teaching assistants will visit each primary working with the pupils randomised to the treatment group. These pupils will be picked up again by the same TAs when entering secondary school. The intervention will continue for the remainder of the 30 week trial period. Control group students will receive usual teaching.

What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Participants may see an improvement in their reading ability. There are no risks to participating.

Where is the study run from?
The study is run from seventeen schools in the UK.

When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
The study started in June 2013 and ran until April 2014.

Who is funding the study?
Education Endowment Foundation (UK)

Who is the main contact?
Mr Simon Rutt
s.rutt@nfer.ac.uk

Trial website

Contact information

Type

Scientific

Primary contact

Mr Simon Rutt

ORCID ID

Contact details

The Mere
Upton Park
Slough
SL1 2DQ
United Kingdom
+44 1753 637396
s.rutt@nfer.ac.uk

Additional identifiers

EudraCT number

ClinicalTrials.gov number

Protocol/serial number

EFCL

Study information

Scientific title

Evaluation of the Catch Up Literacy intervention: a randomised trial

Acronym

Study hypothesis

Testing the impact of the Catch Up Literacy intervention on underperforming pupils when delivered by trained teaching assistants.

Ethics approval

National Foundation for Educational Research Code of Practice Committee. NFERs Code of Practice Committee which also deals with ethics met on 09/05/2013 and 22/11/2013. Any ethical issues would have been raised at these meetings.

Study design

Two armed randomised trial

Primary study design

Interventional

Secondary study design

Randomised controlled trial

Trial setting

Other

Trial type

Treatment

Patient information sheet

Not available in web format, please use the contact details below to request a patient information sheet

Condition

Educational Attainment

Intervention

Pupils are randomised to one of two groups.

1. Catch Up Literacy intervention: Catch Up Literacy is a structured one-to-one intervention for learners who find reading difficult. The programme provides two 15 minute teaching sessions to each child per week and adopts a combination of segmenting, blending phonemes and memorising letter names of high frequency sight words.

2. Normal classroom teaching

Intervention type

Other

Phase

Not Applicable

Drug names

Primary outcome measure

New Group Reading Test (NGRT) - NGRT test are being used as an outcome measure in September 2013 and March 2014. Key Stage 2 assessments in reading will be used as a covariate and an assessment of ability pre intervention.

Secondary outcome measures

NFER developed measure on pupil confidence and self esteem. A pupil questionnaire is being developed by NFER researchers to measure pupil attitude to reading and self esteem. This will be administered prior to the completion of the post test in March 2014.

Overall trial start date

01/06/2013

Overall trial end date

17/04/2014

Reason abandoned (if study stopped)

Eligibility

Participant inclusion criteria

Year 6 pupils performing at level 4c and below in reading and where secondary school allocation is known (pupils are going to one of the selected secondary schools)

Participant type

Patient

Age group

Child

Gender

Both

Target number of participants

17 secondary schools - 816 pupils

Total final enrolment

631

Participant exclusion criteria

Parental opt-out

Recruitment start date

01/06/2013

Recruitment end date

17/04/2014

Locations

Countries of recruitment

United Kingdom

Trial participating centre

The Mere
Slough
SL1 2DQ
United Kingdom

Sponsor information

Organisation

The Education Endowment Foundation (UK)

Sponsor type

Charity

Website

Funders

Funder type