Comparative Effectiveness of Initial Teaching Alphabet vs. Traditional Orthography in First Grade in the Pittsburgh Public Schools

Abstract

This study compares the effectiveness in reading instruction of the i.t.a. Scott Foresman series and the traditional Scott Foresman series on 562 first-grade students as measured by three subtests of the Metropolitan Achievement Test (taken in the traditional alphabet) and four subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test (taken in the alphabet in which they were trained). Two readiness measures were used as pretests. An analysis of covariance clearly indicates a statistically significant difference in achievement favoring the i.t.a.