RAPID: Assessing and preventing detrimental impacts on literacy acquisition during COVID-19-related school closures

2019冠状病毒病大流行导致美国大多数州的避难所和学校关闭，预计大多数学校将在剩余的学年中关闭，这将导致学生在大约6个月内无法连续接受面对面的学术指导。这种前所未有的关闭将对低年级学生基本阅读技能的发展产生深远的影响，特别是对那些接受特殊教育或有学习障碍风险的儿童来说，远程/在线学习更具挑战性。事实上，长时间没有直接指导，即使是在典型的三个月的暑假期间，也会导致学生失去相当于一个月的学习成绩。如果不能在COVID-19关闭的两倍时间内支持学习，可能会对教育产生巨大影响。因此，以下问题至关重要：1)基于当前阅读研究的远程学习工具能否增强最年轻学习者的关键阅读相关技能？学习阅读的哪些方面适用于远程技术？3)新冠肺炎疫情期间，学校停课时间长得前所未有，将前沿阅读研究融入游戏的数字技术能否克服学生阅读能力下降的问题？美国各地的100名教育工作者和2000名K-2学生将参加该项目，他们都因新冠肺炎而无法进行面对面的教学。教师将采用研究支持的、可负担得起的、以技术为基础的阅读教学计划，该计划可以在家庭中实施，以支持基本语音和字母语音解码技能的发展，教学内容与课堂上的循证阅读教学相同。孩子们将被鼓励在家玩游戏，每天20分钟，每周5天，持续12周，在教学时间由老师监督。在新冠疫情期间，学校还将进行多次标准化在线阅读测试。该研究将考察影响阅读能力的关键因素，包括训练的开始（相对于学校关闭）、练习的持续时间/强度以及学习开始时组成技能的个体差异。该研究还将通过比较这些儿童与未参加研究的可比人群的测试前和测试后的结果，评估教育技术是否有助于防止与阅读能力相关的退化。这项调查的结果将使研究人员能够在最少的亲自指导下评估导致通过教育技术成功学习的因素，这可能指导这些远程学习工具的未来开发和改进。此外，这项研究具有重要意义，因为它不仅将评估COVID-19学校关闭对学习阅读的不利影响，而且还将提供直接手段，为迫切需要循证远程教学工具的教育工作者和学生提供潜在的支持。这些知识对未来可能的关闭很有帮助，并且可以为如何教育美国偏远地区的学生提供基于证据的指导，这些地区训练有素的阅读专家并不容易找到。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to shelter-in-place and school closure in the majority of states across the U.S. Most schools are expected to be closed throughout the remaining school year, which will result in students not receiving in-person academic instruction continuously for approximately 6 months. This unprecedented closure will have profound impacts on the development of basic reading skills in the early grades, especially for those children in special education or at-risk for learning disorders where remote/online learning is more challenging. Indeed, extended periods without direct instruction, even in a typical 3-month summer vacation period can result in students losing the equivalent of one month of academic performance. A failure to support learning over the twice as long, COVID-19 closures could have dramatic educational implications. Thus, it is crucial to ask 1) Can remote-learning tools based in current research on reading strengthen key reading-related skills in the youngest learners? 2) What aspects of learning to read are amenable to remote technology? 3) Can digital technology that incorporates cutting-edge reading research in a game-based format overcome the decline in reading skills over the unprecedented length of the COVID-19 school closures?One hundred educators across the U.S. and 2000 of their K-2 students, all prevented from in-person instruction as a result of COVID-19, will be enrolled in the project. Teachers will incorporate a research-supported, affordable, and technology-based reading instructional program that can be administered in the home to support the development of essential phonological and letter-sound decoding skills with instructional content identical to evidence-based reading instruction in the classroom. Children will be encouraged to play the games at home for 20 minutes per day, 5 days per week, for 12 weeks, proctored by teachers during instructional time. Standardized online reading tests will also be administered several times during the COVID-19 school closures. The research will examine critical factors that moderate reading gains with training, including onset of the training (relative to school closing), duration/intensity of practice, and individual differences in component skills at onset of the study. The research will also assess whether educational technology can serve to prevent closure-related deterioration in reading development by comparing pre- and post-testing for these children with comparable populations not enrolled in the study. Results from this investigation will allow researchers to assess factors that lead to successful learning through educational technology with minimal in-person guidance, which may guide future development and refinement of these remote learning tools. Further, the study is significant as it will not only assess the detrimental impact of COVID-19 school closures on learning to read but also provide direct means to potentially support educators and students who are in dire need of evidence-based remote instructional tools. Such knowledge can be helpful in possible future closures and can provide evidence-based guidance on how to teach students in remote areas within the U.S. where trained reading specialists are not readily available.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.