A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF THE IMPACT OF SCHEMA-BASED INSTRUCTION ON MATHEMATICAL OUTCOMES FOR THIRD-GRADE STUDENTS WITH MATHEMATICS DIFFICULTIES

This study compared the effects of delivering a supplemental, small-group tutoring intervention on the mathematics outcomes of third-grade students at risk for mathematics difficulties (MD) who were randomly assigned to either a schema-based instruction (SBI) or control group. SBI emphasized the underlying mathematical structure of additive problems. All students at risk for MD identified through screening received a mathematics intervention in groups of 2--4 for 12 weeks across the school year. Results revealed that students in the SBI group outperformed students in the control group on a word problem solving (WPS) posttest (g = 0.46). The effect of SBI proved to be equivalent for students in both high and low at-risk subgroups. On a district-administered mathematics achievement test, SBI students scored significantly higher than control students (g = 0.34); however, there were no significant effects on the WPS retention test (8 weeks later).