Participants
Fifteen middle school seventh graders participated in the study, ranging in age from 11- 13. They were enrolled in a heterogeneous classroom in a small city school. This public school was located in Northwest Ohio. Of the fifteen students, seven were male and eight were female. These students were chosen because the researcher wanted to develop a reading intervention program for students who did not pass the sixth grade proficiency test. In order to determine the class list, a copy of the proficiency test scores for all of the sixth grade students was obtained. The test scores were reviewed and each student who did not pass the sixth grade reading proficiency test was scheduled for the reading intervention program. These fifteen students failed to pass the above mentioned proficiency test as sixth graders, and therefore became the participants in this study.
Instruments/Protocols Research question 4 asked: "Did the use of the Read XL program improve the comprehension skills of seventh grade at-risk students?" In order to answer this question, the researcher collected data using a pretest, a weekly selection assessment, and a posttest. The tests and assessments were completed individually by each student and recorded by the researcher.