The Effect of the SIM Inference Strategy on Reading Scores of Special Education and At-Risk Students

Abstract

The research for this study was taken from a doctoral dissertation where archival data was reviewed to determine the effect of the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) Inference Strategy on standardized reading test scores of special education and at-risk students educated exclusively in a school-within-a-school setting. The school-within-a school setting is a classroom designed to provide additional academic support for students whose Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) reading scores indicated the need for additional support by the school district. Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test reading scale scores, including archival data, were compared for four groups of eighth-grade students attending a Central Florida Title I public middle school during the 2008–09 and 2009–10 school years. Groups 1 (2008–09) and 3 (2009–10) received SIM treatment in a school-within-a-school setting, instructed by the same team of teachers, general educators trained in the SIM Inference Strategy. Groups 2 (2008–09) and 4 (2009–10) neither participated in the school-within-a-school model nor received SIM instruction. Although results indicated improved high-stakes standardized reading test scores for the school-within-a-school students, the study revealed no statistically significant difference between the groups that received SIM instruction and those that did not.