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Visible Learning™
Visible Learning MetaX™
Version 1.4 – Updated February 2026

Reading strategies

Overview

  • Influence: Reading strategies
  • Domain: Curricula
  • Sub-Domain: Reading, writing and the arts
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to accelerate
  • Influence Definition: These reading programs seek to harmonize the entire reading curriculum, thereby teaching reading more effectively over the long term. In particular, comprehensive approaches attempt to align materials, procedures, personnel, and evaluations.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 13
  • Number of studies: 424
  • Number of students: 29,518
  • Number of effects: 724
  • Weighted mean effect size: 0.45
  • Robustness index: 4

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Educational Research Review Slavin, Lake, Davis & Madden Effective programs for struggling readers: A best-evidence synthesis 2011 Small group tutorials 21 2,833 21 0.35
Educational Research Review Slavin, Lake, Davis & Madden Effective programs for struggling readers: A best-evidence synthesis 2011 Classroom Instructional Processes 40 6,884 40 0.48
Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Koufogiannakis & Wiebe Effective Methods for Teaching information Literacy Skills to Undergraduate Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis 2006 Teaching informational literacy 8 408 8 0.09
Report Slavin, Lake, Cheung, & Davis Effective Beginning Reading Programs: A Best-Evidence Synthesis 2009 Instructional process programs in beginning reading 44 14,556 44 0.32
Report Taylor, Stevens, & Asher The effects of explicit reading strategy training on L2 reading comprehension. 2006 Explicit reading strategies in L2 23 NA 23 0.54
Review of Educational Research Swanborn & de Glopper Incidental Word Learning while Reading: A Meta-Analysis 1999 Incidental word learning 20 2,130 20 0.15
Journal of Educational Psychology Hebert, Bohaty, Nelson, & Brown The effects of text structure instruction on expository reading comprehension: A meta-analysis. 2016 Text structure on reading 40 NA 170 0.57
Journal of Special Education Filderman, Toste, Didion, Peng, & Clemens Data-based decision making in reading interventions: A synthesis and meta-analysis of the effects for struggling readers. 2018 Data based decision making 15 NA 46 0.24
Reading Research Quarterly Bogaerds-Hazenberg, Evers-Vermeul, & van den Bergh A meta-analysis on the effects of text structure instruction on reading comprehension in the upper elementary grades 2020 Text structure on reading 44 NA 44 0.30
Educational Psychology Review Okkinga, van Steensel, van Gelderen, van Schooten, Sleegers, & Arends Effectiveness of reading-strategy interventions in whole classrooms: A meta-analysis. 2018 Reading strategy interventions 52 NA 125 0.36
Journal of Learning Disabilities Tighe & Schatschneider Examining the relationships of component reading skills to reading comprehension in struggling adult readers: A meta-analysis. 2016 Reading skills 16 2,707 74 1.04
Exceptional Children Filderman, Austin, Boucher, O'Donnell, & Swanson A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Reading Comprehension Interventions on the Reading Comprehension Outcomes of Struggling Readers in Third Through 12th Grades.  2022 Reading comprehension interventions 64 NA 64 0.59
English Teaching Maeng The effectiveness of reading strategy instruction: A Meta-Analysis. 2014 Reading strategies 37 NA 45 0.58
TOTAL/AVERAGE 424 29,518 724 0.43
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