Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect Lexia Core5 had on first,second, and third grade students’ development of foundational reading skills; phonemicawareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension reading scores. Anotherpurpose was to learn if the amount of time students logged online while using LexiaCore5 impacted first, second, and third grade students’ academic gain scores infoundational reading skills. The final purpose of this study was to provide decisionmakers in the educational community with information about the contributions of LexiaCore5 on reading development.Data from first, second, and third grade students were collected from RenaissanceSTAR Early Literacy and STAR Reading Enterprise assessments in order to calculatestudent academic gain in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, andcomprehension skills after using the Lexia Core5 program for the 2013-2014 school year.An academic gain was calculated by subtracting the student’s reading skills pre-test scorefrom the post-test score. The minutes students logged online while using Lexia Core5were compiled in a report produced from the Lexia Learning Company. There were fourcategories of time spent online for each grade level. The categories were used inconjunction with student phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, andcomprehension academic gain scores to determine the effect of time on first, second, andthird grade students’ reading skills developmentData revealed that Lexia Core5 yielded statistically significant growth inphonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension for first gradestudents. The data also showed students in second and third grade had significant growth in phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. A deeper analysis of the resultsrevealed time was a factor in first, second, and third grade students’ academic gainscores. The results indicated first grade students’ academic gain scores in phonemicawareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension skills were impacted by the amountof time students logged online while using Lexia Core5. Time was not a factor in firstgrade students’ fluency academic gain scores. In addition, second grade students’phonics and comprehension academic gain scores were impacted by time, but time wasnot a factor in their fluency and vocabulary academic gain scores. Further analysisrevealed third grade students’ academic gain scores in phonics, vocabulary, fluency, andcomprehension skills were not impacted by the amount of time students used theprogram.