Project CLASS

A randomized trial of two promising interventions
for students with attention problems

Although attention problems prevent millions of children from succeeding academically each year, research on interventions to enhance attention and academic achievement among inattentive students has been primarily limited to studies of medication treatment and behavioral interventions in children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and these studies have failed to document that intervention produces long-term gains in students' academic achievement.

Thus, despite the substantial adverse impact that attention problems have on student achievement, there are currently no interventions to improve the attention and academic performance of inattentive students for which efficacy has been clearly demonstrated, and there is a pressing need for additional study of promising interventions to enhance attention and academic achievement among inattentive students.

To address this important gap in the literature we propose to conduct a randomized, school-based trial of two promising interventions for inattentive students - computerized attention training (CAT) and computer-assisted instruction (CAI) - to determine whether they promote immediate and sustained gains in attention and academic achievement.

The study is a clear match for the Cognition and Student Learning Research Grants competition in that it addresses the higher-order cognitive process of attention and will directly link improvement in attention to improving student learning and achievement in regular classroom settings. Documenting the efficacy of either approach, or their combination, would have important implications for helping thousands of students whose academic achievement is significantly impaired by their inattentive behavior in the classroom.

However, even if these approaches are shown to be ineffective, the study would provide important information as it could prevent an increasing number of schools from devoting scarce resources to interventions that are not helpful and would direct researchers towards pursuing the development of other interventions for assisting students with attention difficulties. In addition to examining this important applied issue, results from this study will add to the existing literature on the attention difficulties and academic achievement.