Online learning quickly became essential during the COVID-19 school closures, while upending most traditional learning practices. This case study looks at the significant growth students at one primary school achieved using Reading Eggs in class and at home.
Reading Eggs Success During the COVID‑19 Shutdown
This remarkable case study shows how one group of students not only maintained, but improved their grade level during the challenging lockdown period using Reading Eggs.
Case Study
The case study school is in North Carolina and serves over 500 students. Minorities make up approximately half of the student population. Additionally, almost half of the students qualify for a free or discounted lunch.
The school closed in mid-March 2020 to help minimise the spread of COVID-19. During the remote learning period from March–June 2020 students in Kindergarten and First Grade were expected to complete daily reading and writing activities.
Kindergarten
The Reading Eggs Kindergarten lessons are sequenced to gradually build on students’ literacy knowledge. At the beginning of Kindergarten, most students are emergent readers who use Reading Eggs to learn letter sounds, phonemic awareness skills, phonics skills, and highfrequency words. As students reach the First Grade lessons, they have an ever-expanding reading vocabulary, can read sentences and simple stories which include short- and long-vowel words plus the high frequency words that all students need to become fluent readers.
Lessons Completed
From September 2019–June 2020, 84* Kindergarten students completed 4758 Reading Eggs lessons. Students completed 834 lessons—their highest number—in April 2020 during remote learning.
Grade Level Progress
In the 2019–20 school year, Kindergarten students made substantial progress. The table below shows students’ grade level progress as they spent time using Reading Eggs.
| Grade level progress range | Number of students | Average minutes per week using Reading Eggs |
|---|---|---|
| 2.01–2.5 | 10 | 46 |
| 1.51–2.0 | 10 | 43 |
| 1.01–1.5 | 24 | 31 |
| 0.51–1.0 | 22 | 17 |
| 0–0.5 | 18 | 9 |
All except one Kindergarten student started the year at grade level. By the end of the year, over half the students were working above grade level.
| Start of the school year | End of the school year | |
|---|---|---|
| Above grade level | 1 | 46 |
| At grade level | 83 | 38 |
| Below grade level |
On average, Kindergarten students spent 26 minutes per week—that is only a little over 5 minutes per school day—using Reading Eggs and progressed 1.11 grade levels during the 2019–20 school year.
Grade level progress increased with time spent using Reading Eggs.
First Grade
First Grade lessons build upon students’ literacy knowledge. As students’ progress through the First Grade maps, they are introduced to more challenging phonics sounds, decodable words, and high frequency words. Students also access a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction texts. After Lesson 60, students can visit Storylands, a separate set of 20 lessons that contain 140 activities that cover emergent and early reading levels 1–10 and build reading, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.
Lessons Completed
rom September 2019–June 2020, 95 First Grade students completed 5682 Reading Eggs lessons. These students completed 875 lessons—their highest number—in March 2020 during remote learning.
Grade Level Progress
During the 2019–20 school year, First Grade students made substantial progress. The table below shows students’ grade level progress as they spent time using Reading Eggs.
| Grade level progress range | Number of students | Average minutes per week using Reading Eggs |
|---|---|---|
| 2.01–2.5 | 4 | 4 |
| 1.51–2.0 | 19 | 41 |
| 1.01–1.5 | 35 | 30 |
| 0.51–1.0 | 29 | 21 |
| 0–0.5 | 8 | 11 |
Over 80% of First Grade students started the year below grade level. By the end of the year, almost 80% of students were working at or above grade level.
| Start of the school year | End of the school year | |
|---|---|---|
| Above grade level | 1 | 36 |
| At grade level | 15 | 41 |
| Below grade level | 79 | 18 |
On average, First Grade students spent 29 minutes per week using Reading Eggs and progressed 1.18 grade levels during the 2019–20 school year.
Grade level progress increased with time spent using Reading Eggs
Student Progression to Reading Eggs
During the remote learning period, several First Grade students completed the Reading Eggs program. Some of these students went on to make significant progress using Reading Eggspress.
The charts below highlight these students’ remarkable progress. The quiz data demonstrates that the children could apply the knowledge they had gained during the lessons.
The Reading Eggspress Comprehension program is a complete strategic reading program devised by education experts to be used at school or at home. The program’s carefully sequenced lessons use a range of texts to build children's literal, inferential, and critical reading comprehension skills, and metacognitive understanding. Children are required to engage with comprehension concepts such as main idea and details; compare and contrast; making connections; sequencing events; cause and effect; understanding character; drawing conclusions; predicting; summarising; fact and opinion; point of view; and word study. The charts below highlight these students’ remarkable progress. The quiz data demonstrates that the children could apply the knowledge they had gained during the lessons.
Sample Student A
Student A tested into Reading Eggs at grade level in December 2019. The student made significant progress during the remote learning period and completed the program in late May 2020. Student A then sat the Placement Test for Reading Eggspress and commenced the program accordingly at Lesson 1. Student A progressed 2.0 grade levels using Reading Eggspress in just a few weeks.
Reading Eggs Lesson Progress
Reading Eggspress Lesson Progress
Reading Success During a Time of Uncertainty
The 2019-20 school year was unprecedented. Teachers, parents, and caregivers worked tirelessly to ensure there were minimal interruptions to students’ learning as they transitioned from in-class lessons to remote learning. And, for their part, students showed incredible resilience and perseverance in challenging circumstances. It was inspiring to see children use Reading Eggs to maintain and even extend their grade level learning during this difficult time.
Download the full report
Download the full case study in PDF format and see how Reading Eggs helped students succeed during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown.