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

新冠肺炎疫情已导致美国大部分州的避难所和学校停课。预计大部分学校将在剩余学年停课，这将导致学生在大约6个月的时间里无法接受面对面的学习指导。这种史无前例的关闭将对早期年级基本阅读技能的发展产生深远影响，特别是对于那些接受特殊教育或面临学习障碍风险的儿童，因为远程/在线学习更具挑战性。事实上，在没有直接指导的情况下延长时间，即使是在典型的3个月暑假期间，也会导致学生失去相当于一个月的学习成绩。如果不能在两倍的时间内支持学习，新冠肺炎关闭可能会产生戏剧性的教育影响。因此，提出一个至关重要的问题：1)基于当前阅读研究的远程学习工具能否增强最年轻的学习者与阅读相关的关键技能？2)学习阅读的哪些方面适用于远程技术？3)以游戏形式结合尖端阅读研究的数字技术能否克服新冠肺炎停课带来的阅读技能下降的问题？美国100名教育工作者和2000名K-2年级的学生将参加该项目，他们都因为新冠肺炎而无法进行面对面教学。教师将纳入一个研究支持的、负担得起的、基于技术的阅读教学计划，该计划可以在家中管理，以支持发展基本的语音和字母声音解码技能，其教学内容与课堂上基于证据的阅读教学相同。孩子们将被鼓励在家中玩游戏，每天20分钟，每周5天，持续12周，在老师的指导下进行。在新冠肺炎学校停课期间，标准化的在线阅读测试也将进行几次。这项研究将考察通过培训来缓和阅读增长的关键因素，包括培训的开始(相对于学校关闭)，练习的持续时间/强度，以及研究开始时组成技能的个体差异。这项研究还将通过将这些儿童的测试前和测试后与未参加研究的可比人群进行比较，来评估教育技术是否有助于防止与关闭相关的阅读发展恶化。这项调查的结果将使研究人员能够在最少的面对面指导下评估通过教育技术成功学习的因素，这可能会指导这些远程学习工具的未来发展和改进。此外，这项研究具有重要意义，因为它不仅将评估新冠肺炎学校关闭对学习阅读的不利影响，而且还将提供直接手段，潜在地支持迫切需要循证远程教学工具的教育工作者和学生。这些知识可能对未来可能的关闭有所帮助，并可以为如何在美国偏远地区教授学生提供循证指导，这些地区缺乏训练有素的阅读专家。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.