Effects of Journeys Reading Intervention on Reading Achievement of Students With Disabilities

In Georgia, students with disabilities are falling behind students without disabilities in reading. Students with disabilities need to learn how to read fluently and comprehend because reading is embedded in all academic areas. Guided by LaBerge and Samuels's theory of automatic information processing in reading, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of the Journeys reading intervention on the reading achievement of students with disabilities using a comparative research design. The guiding research question for this quantitative project study addressed the difference in reading achievement scores for 3rd through 5th-grade students with disabilities who participated in the Journeys reading program and those who did not. The convenience sample consisted of 34 students with disabilities in Grades 3 through 5 during the 2013 and 2014 school years. Data from the 2013 and 2014 state reading assessments were collected and analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U Test. Results indicated that students with disabilities who received the Journeys program made more significant gains in reading than students who received the traditional program. The doctoral project included a program evaluation report that will be presented to the local school district. Social change implications include enhancing the reading achievement for students with disabilities through a more effective reading curriculum.