Founded through a research grant over 35 years ago, Lexia has been committed to conducting evidence-based, scientific research to support the development of Lexia literacy products and demonstrate the efficacy of its programs.
For over 20 years, studies on Lexia products have been conducted and published by researchers around the world.
Lexia now has over 20 externally reviewed research studies, which includes a recent report by the EEF.
Based on the strength of existing studies, Lexia’s large user base across England and strong alignment to their guidance reports on improving literacy, the EEF identified Lexia as a promising program to investigate.
This two-armed randomised control study involved 697 pupils across 57 schools and focused on pupils identified as struggling readers in Year 2.
The treatment group typically used the program independently for two to four 30-minute sessions per week, as real-time reports fed performance data back to teachers.
Using this data, staff were able to identify progress and offer additional support using Lexia’s printable resources where needed.
Largely however, pupils worked independently on the online activities as the program automatically personalises to individual need, thus minimising the need for one-to-one support.
To understand Lexia’s literacy program in more detail, watch this short overview.
EEF main findings
The independent evaluation found that struggling readers offered Lexia made the equivalent of two additional months’ progress in reading, on average, compared to other children with similar ability.
These results were achieved in typically 12 hours’ program use over a school term.
The study received a high security rating on the EEF padlock scale. In addition, the cost of delivery was reported as ‘very low’.
Disadvantaged/FSM update (2022)
In February 2022, the EEF reported subgroup analysis findings on FSM status pupils who took part in the study.
This update reported a statistically significant difference between intervention and control arms, representing an effect of three months’ additional progress, which is greater than the effect shown in the primary analysis.
A similar effect was observed in the intervention-FSM interaction model (Hedges’ g 0.3), which represents four months’ additional progress in the FSM group.
These results suggest that the Lexia program may be more effective in FSM pupils; however, the sample was limited, and the study was not powered to detect an effect in any subgroup.
Other findings
Commonly when evaluating any new programme in schools, implementation and sustainability can be challenging.
This did not seem to be the case with Lexia as a high proportion of pupils (93%) completed the minimum usage requirement to be included in the study.
Surveys found that pupils were highly engaged in the online activities and their confidence in reading increased.
Fidelity of implementation was high, with the majority of schools incorporating Lexia well into the school day.
Over 75% of survey respondents were satisfied with accessing the program, support provided by LexiaUK, and the usefulness of the online reporting tools.
HLTA survey response: “The children were engaged in the lessons and loved it when they finished a section.
“They were very focused and enjoyed the control that they had. They became more confident in their learning and the progress was evident in their class work.”
What next?
Overall, the EEF deemed the results as ‘very promising’ and are investigating the potential for delivering Lexia in more schools to trial it on an even larger scale.
Further investigation on Lexia’s effectiveness with FSM pupils may be explored, along with how to further enhance implementation and support in the busy school setting.
For full details on the Lexia Core5 Reading Evaluation, visit the EEF website.
Interested in trialling Lexia in your school?
LexiaUK offers individual schools (or trusts) the opportunity to evaluate their programs to realise the benefits for themselves.
The trial period also allows schools to explore how best Lexia could be implemented as part of their school development plan.
Trials are fully supported with training: all LexiaUK requires is that the program is used ‘little and often’ with selected pupils over the trial period.
