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Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS): Supplemental peer-tutoring program to improve reading and math skills of students with learning disabilities

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Intervention Details

Subjects

English Language Arts, Math

Academic Program

Specific Learning Disability Program

Duration

30-35 minute peer-tutoring sessions, three or four times per week for reading sessions and two times per week for math sessions

Grades

2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Personnel

General Education Teacher, Special Education Teacher

Intervention Summary

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) is a supplemental peer-tutoring program that targets reading and math skills of students with learning disabilities. PALS consists of a structured set of activities in reading or math, where student pairs take turns acting as the tutor, coaching and correcting one another as they work through problems. Teachers train their students in PALS procedures using training lessons from the teacher's manual, and then form student pairs based on teacher judgment of student needs and abilities. PALS activities vary for reading and math classes, and include activities such as Partner Reading/Retelling, Paragraph Shrinking, and Prediction Relay for reading, and Coaching and Practice for math.

Statistical Finding Summary

Positive effect on reading fluency

Positive effect on reading comprehension

No effect on mathematics

Source

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse. (2012). Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/intervention/7.

Data Sample by Population

These charts show the characteristics of the student populations studied. When assessing programs, you may want to prioritize interventions that yielded success in a similar demographic environment as your school or district.

The subgroup population data as studied here are not available. That means that while this study may work well for your setting, we cannot say based on the published study and results from our system’s reading of that study what the school/district subgroup characteristics were when evaluated here.