Reading skills intervention during the Covid-19 pandemic

The study addresses how COVID-19-related school closures and emergency remote learning affected early reading development and examines whether a short, targeted intervention can remediate losses. During the 2019–2020 school year, prolonged closures led to widespread remote instruction with unclear effectiveness and heightened socioeconomic disparities in learning opportunities. Prior work anticipates learning losses, particularly among lower-achieving and low-SES students, with reduced parental support and limited access to devices and internet compounding inequalities. In Portugal, delays in providing technological equipment further exacerbated gaps. Given the foundational role of decoding for reading fluency and comprehension, the authors sought to (1) diagnose second graders’ reading skills at the start of the school year following a disrupted final trimester of first grade and (2) evaluate the impact of a brief Reading Skills Consolidation Program (RSCP) on reading performance and SES-related disparities.

The paper synthesizes evidence on the impacts of COVID-19 remote learning: anticipated achievement declines and widening inequalities (Bacher-Hicks et al., Chetty et al., Kuhfeld et al.), challenges for parents supporting online learning (Abuhammad; Dong et al.), and the digital divide affecting disadvantaged families (Azubuike et al.; Andrew et al.; Bol). Portuguese reports documented late and limited delivery of devices (Machado et al.), and library borrowing data suggested increased inequality in reading activities (Jæger & Blaabæk; Reimer et al.). Reading to children buffered losses (Bao et al.). Long-standing findings show low-SES students lose ground during extended breaks (Cooper et al.). Early identification and intensive, evidence-based reading interventions focusing on phonemic awareness and decoding can reverse trajectories (Hall & Burns; Lyytinen; Jamshidifarsani et al.; Solheim et al.). The TEIP program context defines low-SES school territories in Portugal. This background motivates an early, decoding-focused intervention to mitigate pandemic-related deficits and SES gaps.

Design: Pre-post within-group design assessing all participating second graders before and after a 5-week intervention (RSCP). When normality was not met, non-parametric tests were checked; since conclusions matched, parametric test results are reported. Participants: T1 (September 2020): N=542 second graders (256 girls, 286 boys) from 19 public schools in Northern Portugal; 280 (51.7%) NTEIP (average SES), 262 (48.3%) TEIP (low SES). T2 (October/November, 5 weeks later): N=446 (224 boys, 208 girls) from 17 schools; 200 (44.8%) NTEIP, 246 (55.2%) TEIP. Attrition (n=96; 18%) due to COVID-19 quarantines prevented some post-tests. SES operationalization: School grouping type: NTEIP = average SES; TEIP = low SES. Instrument: Teste de Rastreio de Leitura (TRL) for Portuguese first graders (Silva et al., 2020). Thirty timed (5 min) multiple-choice sentence-completion items; one target and three visually/phonologically confusable distractors (words or pseudowords). Twenty items use orthographically simple words (CV), ten use orthographically complex structures (e.g., CVC, consonant-diphthong, CCV). Total score = correct items (0–30). Reference end-of-first-grade mean ~11 (SD 6.2). Intervention (RSCP): Five sessions comprising ten activities designed to consolidate decoding skills. Two teacher-selected tracks based on pre-test: Option A targets students fragile at letter-sound level (alphabetic decoding only); sample activity “letters clothesline” linking initial phonemes to word generation. Option B starts with alphabetic decoding then advances to orthographic decoding for students with basic letter-sound mastery; sample activity “change the syllables” manipulating syllable order to form and read words. Implemented by educational/clinical professionals together with classroom teachers, under project coordination. Procedures: Individual TRL assessment at T1 (last two weeks of September) and T2 (five weeks later). Students were not receiving other reading/writing interventions concurrently. Consent obtained; confidentiality assured. Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics and percentile distributions (≤P10, >P10–≤P30, >P30). Paired-samples t-tests assessed pre-post changes for the 446 students with both assessments, separately by SES; independent t-tests compared SES groups. SPSS v26 used. Significance thresholds reported.

• T1 overall performance: Mean TRL accuracy = 12.3 (SD=10). Percentiles (n=542): ≤P10=26.6% (n=144), >P10–≤P30=18.8% (n=102), >P30=54.6% (n=296). Thus, 45% were at or below P30 at second-grade onset.
• SES differences at T1: Average SES Mean=13.30 (SD=10.05; n=280) vs Low SES Mean=11.19 (SD=9.87; n=262); t(540)=2.46, p=0.01. Percentiles by SES: ≤P10—Average 21.8% (n=61) vs Low 31.7% (n=83); >P30—Average 58.9% (n=165) vs Low 50.0% (n=131).
• Pre-post within matched sample (n=446): Significant gains after 5 weeks in both SES groups: Average SES t(445)=17.00, p<0.001; Low SES t(445)=15.56, p<0.001. At T2, SES difference was not significant: t(444)=1.52, p=0.13.
• Percentile shifts (n=446): ≤P10 decreased from 25.5% (n=114) at T1 to 13.2% (n=59) at T2; >P30 increased from 53.4% (n=238) to 73.1% (n=326). >P10–≤P30 decreased from 21.1% to 13.7%.
• SES-specific percentile shifts (n=446): Average SES—≤P10 from 20.0% to 10.5%; >P30 from 57.0% to 77.5%. Low SES—≤P10 from 30.1% to 15.5%; >P30 from 50.4% to 69.5%.

The study confirms substantial disruption to early reading acquisition following pandemic-related school closures, with nearly half of students starting second grade at or below the 30th percentile and a disproportionate burden on low-SES students. These findings align with literature documenting widened educational inequalities and reduced learning gains among disadvantaged groups during extended instructional interruptions. Implementing a short, decoding-focused RSCP produced significant improvements across the cohort within five weeks, halving the proportion at or below the 10th percentile and increasing the share above the 30th percentile by 20 percentage points. Notably, post-intervention analyses showed no significant differences between SES groups, indicating that targeted early decoding practice can mitigate SES-related disparities in the short term. The results suggest that systematic, intensive instruction in letter-sound correspondence and decoding can rapidly elevate foundational reading skills, supporting a strategy for post-pandemic recovery and equity-focused intervention in early grades.

At the beginning of second grade after pandemic-related closures, a high proportion of students exhibited weak reading skills, especially those from low-SES backgrounds. A 5-week Reading Skills Consolidation Program focused on letter-sound knowledge and decoding yielded significant overall gains, reduced the proportion of very low performers (≤P10) by more than 10 percentage points, increased the proportion above P30 by about 20 percentage points, and effectively eliminated SES differences at post-test. These findings support early, intensive, decoding-centered interventions as part of school recovery strategies. Future work should incorporate control/comparison groups, examine parental involvement and home resources during lockdowns, and evaluate scalability and long-term maintenance of gains across diverse contexts.

• No non-intervention control group due to the urgency of the pandemic context, limiting causal inference.
• Attrition between T1 and T2 (18%) from quarantines may introduce bias; only students with complete data (n=446) were analyzed for pre-post effects.
• SES was proxied by school grouping (NTEIP vs TEIP), not individual-level SES measures.
• Short follow-up (5 weeks); long-term sustainability of gains unknown.
• Assignment to intervention options (A vs B) was teacher-determined based on assessment, not randomized.