© 2025 Vista Higher Learning Vista’s Bridges: A Study of Reading Growth in MLs 22 Summary of Results SEG Measurement conducted a study of the effectiveness of instruction incorporating Vista Higher Learning’s Bridges to Literature and Content, during the 2024–2025 school year. We found that Bridges effectively increased middle school (grades 6-8) ML students’ English reading skills. A group of approximately 233 ML students in the district received instruction incorporating the Bridges intervention. A comparison group of 228 ML students in the district received instruction using traditional methods, without Bridges. First, we examined the level of reading growth achieved by the treatment group using Bridges separately, as an initial picture of the level of growth achieved. The students’ reading skills were measured at the beginning of the 2024–2025 school year and the end of the 2024–2025 school year. The extent of reading skills improvement was assessed by comparing the beginning of year reading skills assessment scores to the end of year assessment scores. The growth in reading scores from the beginning to the end of the school year was statistically significant (p<.001), with an effect size of .29, or about a quarter of a standard deviation. Next, we examined how the reading skills growth rates found for the group using Bridges (treatment group) compared to the level of growth seen for the ML students in the control group (those receiving traditional instruction). The observed differences were statistically significant (p<=002), with an effect size of .21, or about a quarter of a standard deviation. While the effect size (Cohen’s d) is the most technically accurate indicator of the effect of receiving instruction using Bridges, it is helpful to examine the effect against a more familiar benchmark of practical significance: typical yearly student academic growth. Lipsey, et al (2012) pose the question, “How large is the effect of a given intervention if we think about it in terms of what it might add to a year of average academic growth …” ... students receiving instruction with Bridges instruction achieved about 1 additional year of growth than their peers receiving instruction using traditional practices (control group) did. The typical annual growth for a student in grades 6-8 at the fiftieth percentile on the iReady assessment ranges from about 9 to 12 points (Curriculum Associates, 2018). We found that students receiving instruction using Bridges showed about 13 points greater iReady growth than the control group. This suggests that students receiving instruction with Bridges (treatment group) achieved about 1 additional year of growth than their peers receiving instruction using traditional practices (control group) did.
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