The Impact of Ready to Learn, A School Counselor-Led Intervention on Pro-Social Skills and Reading Skills of First Grade Students

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in pro-social behaviors and reading skills between a treatment group of first grade students who received the Ready to Learn (Brigman, Lane, & Lane, 2008) intervention, delivered by a certified professional school counselor, and a comparison group of first grade students who did not receive this intervention. Counselors in the treatment group were trained in the proper implementation of the manualized Ready to Learn program during a professional development session. They were also trained in other study-related procedures, such as the online check-in tool and the regular site visits by the researcher. The study followed a quasi-experimental design. The Child Behavior Scale (CBS; Ladd, Herald-Brown & Andrews, 2009) was used to measure pro-social behaviors, and Rigby Running Records (Rigby, 2010) was used to assess reading skills. A series of analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were performed to deter mine whether or not there were statistically significant differences between the treatment and comparison group. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) using a pretest score as the covariate was performed to test significance in the difference of reading scores. Results indicate a statistically significant increase in pro-social with peers behaviors, as well as statistically significant decreases in hyperactive and distractible behaviors as well as excluded by peers indicators for the treatment group.