Making an impact on student reading and writing in Spain

The impact on student performance, of our literacy support software Read&Write and Fluency Tutor, was measured across the Vedruna Schools of Catalonia, Spain.

Summary

Consisting of 36 centres in the Autonomous Region of Spain, the Vedruna Schools of Catalonia currently have around 22,000 pupils from Kindergarten right through to Middle and High School. Whilst a number of the schools were introduced to both Read&Write and Fluency Tutor, the efficacy study focused on one K-5 class inclusive of 30 students, and took place over the course of one school year.

The study followed the school’s commitment to education technology, having introduced the use of Google Chromebooks a few years prior. The purpose of the study was to discover if assistive technology positively impacted student learning, particularly in regards to improving native Spanish language and grammar, in addition to the impact of those learning English as a second language and those with additional learning needs.

Outcomes

When writing in English, students increased their word count by over 70%. Similarly, when writing in Spanish the word count increase was 50%.
Overall writing scores (incorporating word count, words with errors, sentence count, and words per sentence) increased by 36% in English and 27% in Spanish.
Words correctly read per minute - the primary indicator of reading fluency - increased by over 27% when reading in English.
The number of mispronunciations of words while reading in English decreased by nearly half (45.9%).
Overall reading prosody (comprised of reading expression, phrasing, smoothness and pace) increased by nearly 10%.