Effects of a Short-Term Intervention Resource-Room Program On Task Orientation and Achievement

Elementary school pupils identified as being a year or more behind in reading and/or math achievement and who were observed as spending low percentages of time on-task were selected for participation in an intensive engineered resource-room program. Groups of approximately 10 children participated in each of 3 8-week intervention phases. For each phase, a comparison group of approximately 10 children remained in the regular classroom. Following the intervention, resource-room pupils spent significantly more time on-task and achieved at a significantly higher level in reading and math than did their comparison counterparts. These advantages were maintained over a period of 4 months after their return to regular classrooms on a full-time basis.