Programming Generality into a Performance Feedback Writing Intervention

Substantial numbers of students in the United States are performing below grade-level expectations in core academic areas, including mathematics, reading, and writing (Aud et al., 2012; National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). National estimates suggest that these deficits are greatest in the area of writing (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012; Persky, Daane, & Jin, 2003), presenting a clear need for research efforts that focus on the development of effective writing interventions. Although performance feedback procedures have been shown to produce promising short-term improvements in elementary-aged students\u27 writing fluency skills (Eckert, Lovett, Rosenthal, Jiao, Ricci, & Truckenmiller, 2006), evidence of maintenance and generalization of these treatment effects is limited (Hier & Eckert, 2014). The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which programming generality into performance feedback procedures enhanced generality of writing fluency gains. A sample of 118 third-grade students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) a performance feedback intervention, (b) a performance feedback intervention that incorporated generality programming procedures, or (c) weekly writing practice without performance feedback or generality programming. Intervention effectiveness was assessed in terms of immediate treatment effects, generalization, and maintenance. Results indicated that although the addition of multiple exemplar training to performance feedback procedures did not improve students\u27 writing fluency on measures of stimulus and response generalization, it did result in greater maintenance of intervention effects in comparison to students who received performance feedback without generality programming and students who engaged in weekly writing practice alone

Generality of Treatment Effects: Evaluating Elementary-Aged Students\u27 Abilities to Generalize and Maintain Fluency Gains of a Performance Feedback Writing Intervention

Although writing ability is a skill that has been argued to be equally important as reading skills in the development of early literacy and is necessary for academic success (Berninger et al., 2006; Graham, MacArthur, & Fitzgerald, 2007), national estimates of students\u27 writing ability in the United States indicate that in 2002, 72% of elementary-aged students were unable to write with grade-level proficiency (Persky, Daane, & Jin, 2003). This finding presents a clear need for empirical, evidence-based interventions that aim to improve students\u27 writing skills, and performance feedback is one type of intervention that has been shown to do so (Eckert et al., 2006). However, no study to date has examined the generalization and maintenance of writing fluency gains that have been developed as a result of performance feedback interventions. The primary goal of this study was to determine whether 51 third-grade students assigned to a performance feedback intervention condition demonstrated evidence of greater (a) writing fluency gains, (b) generalization of writing fluency, and (c) maintenance of writing fluency in comparison to 52 students assigned to a practice-only control condition. Results revealed that although students assigned to the performance feedback condition demonstrated significantly greater writing fluency growth during the course of the intervention than students assigned to the practice-only condition, evidence for maintenance and generalization of intervention effects was limited. These findings suggest that, in isolation, performance feedback may produce short-term desired effects on students\u27 writing fluency growth, but that explicit programming of generality may be required to produce long-term achievement gains

Fluency Training in Phoneme Blending: A Preliminary Study of Generalized Effects

We examined the generalized effects of training children to fluently blend phonemes of words containing target vowel teams on their reading of trained and untrained words in lists and passages. Three second-grade students participated. A subset of words containing each of 3 target vowel teams (aw, oi, and au) was trained in lists, and generalization was assessed to untrained words in lists, trained and untrained words in target passages, and novel words in generalization passages. A multiple probe design across vowel teams revealed generalized increases in oral reading accuracy for target words presented in both lists and passages for all 3 students on 2 vowel teams and for 1 student on all 3 vowel teams. Generalized increases in oral reading fluency in both lists and passages were found for all 3 students on the vowel team that was trained to a fluency criterion, with two students showing increases prior to training on the other two vowel teams. Implications of these results for building fluency in prerequisite phonemic awareness skills as an intervention for promoting generalized oral reading fluency are discussed

A Comparison of CBM-WE Scoring Metrics and Progress Monitoring Frequency Among Second-Grade Students

This study examined the effect of progress monitoring frequency and scoring metric on curriculum-based measurement of written expression (CBM-WE) progress monitoring estimates. The writing progress of 116 second-grade students receiving a classwide writing fluency intervention in their general education classrooms was monitored across 13 weeks (i.e., 1 week of baseline and 12 weeks during the intervention) using CBM-WE. The writing samples were scored for total words written, words spelled correctly, correct writing sequences, and correct minus incorrect writing sequences. Repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) revealed that progress monitoring frequency (weekly, bimonthly, monthly, or every 6 weeks) had a small effect on intercept and slope but a moderate effect on standard error of the estimate (SEE) and standard error of the slope (SEb). Scoring metric had a moderate effect on intercept but a small effect on slope, SEE, and SEb. Students’ intercepts were not related to their slopes across any scoring metrics. Overall, the results of this study suggest that monitoring students’ writing progress every 6 weeks may reduce error while preserving their intercept and slope estimates

Salvage laryngectomy and laryngopharyngectomy: Multicenter review of outcomes associated with a reconstructive approach

Background Surgeons have developed various reconstructive techniques to minimize the rate of pharyngocutaneous fistula and optimize functional outcome after salvage laryngectomy or laryngopharyngectomy. Methods Multicenter retrospective review at 33 institutions of 486 patients with a history of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the larynx or hypopharynx previously treated with primary chemoradiotherapy (CRT) who required salvage surgery. Outcomes evaluated were overall fistula rate, fistula requiring reoperation, and 12‐month speech and swallowing function. Results Primary closure of the hypopharynx was associated with a statistically higher overall fistula rate and fistula requiring reoperation compared to reconstruction with vascularized tissue augmentation. Vascularized tissue augmentation with muscle led to worse 12‐month “understandability of speech” and “nutritional mode” scores compared to vascularized tissue augmentation without muscle. Conclusion Vascularized tissue augmentation reduces the overall fistula rate and fistula requiring reoperation but vascularized tissue augmentation with muscle may impair speech and swallowing outcomes