Education Commons^™

Boys, Reading, And Video Games: A Mixed-Methods Case Study Examining The Effects Of Using A Recreational Video Game To Improve Reading Comprehension Performance At An Elementary School In Texas, Donald Wayne Meyer Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The fifth-grade boys at an elementary school in Texas consistently perform lower than girls on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading portion. The gender gap in reading is not exclusive to this school. Boys score lower than girls on state-administered reading assessments each year in the United States (U.S.) and have done so for decades (Bozack & Salvaggio, 2013; Clinton et al., 2014; Schwabe et al., 2015; Schwanenflugel & Knapp, 2018). This study explored the effects of using a recreational video game on fifth-grade boys struggling with reading comprehension in a six-week-long reading intervention program.

This …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Teaming Practices In Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support And Overall Implementation Fidelity Of Elementary School-Wide Reading Models, Stephney Anderson Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) have been increasingly implemented in schools since the re-authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004 and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. Despite researchers’ efforts to identify elements of MTSS— including evidence-based practices, leadership and communication systems and structures to address learning needs— it has been challenging to identify what makes MTSS work in schools. In fact, researchers have found that schools who implement MTSS on their own tend to stray from the intended practices when the external support of coaches or research teams fades from the school (Balu, Zhu, Doolittle, …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Teaching Literacy To English Language Learners (Ells) Who Struggle With Reading And Who Are In A Suburban District In New York State, Kara A. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP; National Center for Education Statistics, 2020) have shown that despite efforts to raise the literacy skill levels of students in elementary school, the average reading scores for fourth-grade students in 2019 were still cause for concern. The NAEP data showed the reading scores in four percentiles (i.e., 10th, 25th, 50th, and 75th) from 2019 dropped in comparison with the corresponding data garnered in 2017 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). In addition, the number of students whose first language is not English has soared by 105% in the last decade (i.e., …