UC Riverside

The acquisition and utilization of literacy skills is a crucial part of social functioning. Preventative and intensive reading intervention can be administered to at-risk students in a systematic way to help facilitate gains on literacy outcomes. Despite this, barriers to implementation arise. One solution might be the use of paraeducators as providers of supplemental reading instruction. The current study uses meta-analytic procedures to evaluate two major questions: what is the overall effectiveness of paraeducators as implementers of reading intervention? In which areas are paraeducators most effective? A literature search of research from 2001 – 2017 yielded 76 studies. Nine studies met the predetermined inclusion criteria and were coded for demographic information and six common reading outcomes. Results must be interpreted with caution due to issues with sample size and heterogeneity. Spelling and decoding emerge as hopeful areas to inform future research. Other patterns involving grade, ethnicity, and gender are also explored. Implications and limitations are further discussed.