Lexia® Core5® Reading (Lexia) is a technology-led independent learning system which provides personalised practice and instruction in all key skill areas of successful reading: phonological awareness, phonics, structural analysis, automaticity and fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Pupils can use the system with minimal supervision, but if required, the system suggests teacher-led practice and instruction through its bank of printable resources. In the EEF efficacy trial, groups of six – seven pupils were expected to use Lexia four times each week, for 30 minutes per session, for 12 – 24 weeks.
Teachers can implement Lexia flexibly: to target struggling readers, as a whole class, whole school, including home use to supplement teaching, but in this trial EEF tested Lexia delivered as a targeted intervention for struggling readers in Year two (children aged six to seven).
EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit shows that individual instruction interventions can have a high impact on pupil outcomes, with evidence that digital technology can be used effectively to provide individualised instruction. Some recent studies have used digital technology with diagnostic assessment and feedback to individualise instruction, with positive impacts on average. Similarly, one-to-one tuition using digital technology also shows broadly comparable positive effects. EEF’s Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1 guidance report indicates that while teaching reading should integrate phonics, fluency, and comprehension skills at the classroom level, some pupils may need targeted, structured intervention programmes.
EEF trialled this specific programme at efficacy level. This means EEF has trialled this programme in a smaller number of schools in best possible conditions. Children offered Lexia made the equivalent of one additional months’ progress in reading, on average, compared to other children. This result has a high security rating of four padlocks, meaning we are confident that this difference was due to the intervention and not to other factors. Children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) who were offered Lexia made, on average, the equivalent of two additional months’ progress in reading compared to other children eligible for FSM, although this result should be interpreted with caution due to the smaller number of pupils. Further analysis of the different components of literacy suggests that pupils using Lexia made two months’ additional progress in word recognition and decoding – key literacy building blocks – and one month’s additional progress in reading fluency and comprehension, compared to an equivalent comparison group. However, impact did not translate to exploratory analysis on Key Stage 1 national test reading scores.
The robustness of the reading assessment used in the trial, high security of the trial, and the direction of improvement has led EEF to designate this as a ‘Promising Programme’.
Lexia is currently being evaluated at effectiveness level by the EEF, to assess the impact when delivered to a larger number of settings under everyday conditions.
- This was an efficacy trial, that took place in 57 schools, with 697 pupils. The schools were located in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber, Wiltshire, Lancashire and Greater London.
- 33% of the pupils in the trial schools were eligible for FSM. This is higher than national average.
- 92% of the schools involved were Ofsted-rated Good or Outstanding schools. This is slightly higher than national average.
LexiaUK provide software licences, three hours of formal online training, and ongoing support to deliver the programme. For the programme as delivered in the trial, teachers, HLTAs, and TAs attended three one-hour training sessions: at the start, after three weeks, and at the end of delivery, to learn setup and information on delivery including how to interpret pupil progress reports generated by the Lexia software.
Pupils were selected for the programme based on attainment in a reading test (specifically in the trial the Woodcock Reading Master Tests). The lowest scoring pupils per class engaged in the programme. Around 50 Year two pupils per school were selected to take part. Outside of the trial, schools should carefully consider how they select pupils so that the right pupils benefit.
Four 30-minute sessions were run during the week with pupils for 12 – 24 weeks. In the programme, pupils begin with an online independent diagnostic test and are automatically placed at an appropriate level: they then work independently on their school’s devices away from the classroom setting, with support and oversight from trained teachers, Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs) or Teaching Assistants (TAs). The online programme tracks pupils’ progress and adapts automatically to provide extra practice and instruction on areas of difficulty.
Lexia sessions require one device (tablet, laptop, PC, etc.) per child. Most schools in the trial also provided one set of headphones per child. If the paper-based resources are required, these need to be printed by the school. Schools should consider the space they would use for programme delivery.
In the trial, a high proportion of schools implemented Lexia as planned and reported the training provided sufficient information. Pupils also reported they generally enjoyed the programme and felt it gave them confidence in their learning. Most pupils managed to work independently with little scaffolding from teachers/HLTAs/TAs However, some felt that Lexia was unsuitable for a small number of pupils, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and those whose reading level was very low.
For the programme, as trialled in the latest evaluation, the average cost of Lexia® Core5® Reading for 30 pupil licenses was around £3690, or £41 per pupil per year when averaged over 3 years.
This is an estimate of holistic school costs to implement the programme at the time of the evaluation, schools will need to check the current cost of the programme through http://www.lexiauk.co.uk.
Lexia Reading Core5® is available nationally through http://www.lexiauk.co.uk.
Lexia® Core5® Reading is available to purchase and can be used with all primary school year groups (though the EEF has only evaluated the impact on Year 2 pupils). Schools most typically purchase a three-year licence package. The commercially available programme includes the same training model as evaluated in the EEF efficacy trial: three hours of online training for teachers and teaching assistants and ongoing support available as required from the Lexia UK team.
Lexia UK also provide a secondary school reading programme called Lexia® PowerUp Literacy® (though this has not been evaluated by the EEF).
EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit strands related to Individualised Instruction and One-to-one Tuition provide relevant further guidance, as does EEF’s Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1 guidance report