Adult literacy : effects of a developmental reading program for black college students attending a traditional black college

Abstract

It was the purpose of this study to examine the effects of a developmental reading program for black college students attending a traditional black college. Specifically, this study investigated whether the students who received training would score higher on The Nelson-Dennv Reading Test comprehension subtest than the students who did not receive such training. Further, the study examined whether the effects of the training were influenced by age and gender. Students' attitudes toward reading were examined before and after training to determine whether or not there was a change in the attitudes as a consequence of that training. The developmental reading program contained ten separate lessons. These lessons were developed to be delivered in 50-minute sessions for a minimum of 20 hours of training. The training sessions were conducted during the periods scheduled for the regular developmental reading classes in 50 minute sessions for a period of 27 days. Student performance on The Nelson Penny Reading Test comprehension subtest was assessed following the training. Posttest scores on The Nelson-Dennv Reading Test comprehension subtest were submitted to a t test to determine if there were significant differences between group means on the variables of training age and gender. Results of the students' t statistic indicated that there was a significant main effect for the treatment with the trained students scoring higher on the reading comprehension subtest than the untrained students. The performance scores of the trained groups were not influenced by age or gender. There was an appreciable change in attitudes toward reading after training. Conclusions and implications of these findings for adult literacy programs and for teaching reading to this specific category of young adults are discussed, and questions for future research are posed.