Education Commons^™

Teachers Describe Their Confidence In Teaching Secondary Students With Low Literacy Skills, Tamara Polzin

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

For some students, grasping the concept of literacy is completed with ease. For others, the challenges of developing literacy skills to aid in their ability to move from learning to read to reading to learn proves challenging. These challenges cause a gap in literacy growth and have shown to increase as students get older preventing them from fully accessing the concepts found in the secondary setting. As such, secondary educators are being called upon with the assumption that all teachers are teachers of reading. With this in mind, this qualitative research study aimed to uncover secondary social studies teachers’ understanding …

Parental Involvement And The Academic Achievement Of Third And Fourth Grade Students During The 2014-2015 And 2015-2016 School Years, Rise’ D. Black

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to find out if parental involvement in the study school helped to increase student academic achievement. Previous studies have shown that when parents are involved in the educational process of children, parents can expect a gain in academic achievement. This mixed method study examined the relationship between parental involvement and academic gains in reading at one suburban public school. The researcher examined how often parents met with teachers at their child’s school, conversations parents had with teachers about what they were learning in school, how often parents were involved with a parent group, how …

Exemplary Practices Which Support Achievement Gaps In Reading And Writing For Hispanic Ell Learners In Title I Twenty-First Century Elementary Schools, Melinda Gonzalez

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and describe strategies used by public school 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade teachers to support English language learners in Title I public schools.

Methodology: This phenomenological study identified and described 14 teachers' 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade perceptions on effective strategies to support English language learners in reading and writing. Respondents were purposively chosen based on specific criteria and recommendations of an expert panel of experts and data was coded using NVIVO.

Findings: The expert panel members identified multiple strategies to support English language learners. Strategies include (a) Question higher level of …

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., …

Designing A Literacy Program For A Better Chance, Better Community (Abc2), James E. Pittman

Education Projects

ABC2 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that connects rural communities with resources in order to trigger youth power and advocate for practical solutions and healthier lifestyles. This project concentrated on the planning stage of developing a literacy program for students in rural Halifax County. The proposal was written to take use of both sides' current strengths while also looking for ways for the organization, community, and me to expand. Its assessment entailed three steps, including evaluation of whether the project met base criteria, assessment of the project’s impact, and evaluation of the project’s complexity. The primary focus of this project …

Literacy Score Gains In Grades K-2 In A Response To Intervention Program, Diana Dawn Thill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Fewer than half of students demonstrated proficiency on Michigan state-administered summative assessments at the end of third grade at a rural, Title I school in Michigan. The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare reading fluency gains between grade levels (i.e., kindergarten, first, and second grades) in an effort to better understand which grade level demonstrates the most growth. The framework for this research study was the constructs of the variability of learning disabilities. Using a sample of 260 cases, this ex post facto pre-post quantitative study investigated the measurable fluency gains between grade levels in the Dynamic Indicators …

Influence Of An Afterschool Reading Program On Elementary Student Reading Achievement, Chapple Osborne-Arnold

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractMany elementary school students require and may benefit from supplemental reading support and interventions that can be provided by afterschool programs. The problem addressed in this study was that it was not known if third grade students benefited from an afterschool reading program in one East Tennessee District. The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare end of year scale scores on the Standardized Test for the Assessment of Reading (STAR) of third grade students who attended the afterschool reading program for 30 or more days and those who did not attend the afterschool reading program while controlling for …

Fidelity Of Implementation Of A Balanced Literacy Program In The Elementary Classroom, Shalonda Young

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe local problem is that literacy in the target school district continues to rank below the state average and the fidelity of implementation (FOI) of balanced literacy (BL) has not been addressed since BL was initiated in 2014 to address student literacy achievement. Teachers reported limited professional development (PD) and lack of motivation to implement BL as designed. The purpose of this basic qualitative research study was to explore elementary English language arts (ELA) teachers’ and support staff personnel’s perceptions of the FOI of a BL program in the target school district ELA classrooms to determine in what ways the …

The Effectiveness Of A Caregiver Delivered Phonics Intervention For At-Risk Students, Iwalani Dela Paz-Miller

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Reading skills are important for students' academic success. Phonics specifically is a foundational skill which is necessary for reading fluency and overall reading proficiency. Additional support outside of the classroom can be beneficial for those struggling and at-risk. There are various strategies and interventions that can help students' gain important academic skills. In addition to various reading skills and interventions, parents and caregivers can help implement interventions within the home setting to support students in their academic growth. Overall, the research has documented the effectiveness of reading intervention delivered by parents and caregivers, but there is little research on caregiver …

Young Adult Literature In The Classroom: A Tool To Inspire Students And Encourage Reading Both Inside And Outside Of The Classroom, Naomi Nagy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper examines the potential of incorporating more young adult literature into high school English and language arts classrooms. Drawing on past research of others and the thoughts and opinions of a handful of current high school students, this paper will focus on what young adult literature is, why more teens and young adults should read it, and how it can be incorporated and taught in the average high school English classroom. These studies, along with the thoughts and experiences provided by high school students surveyed for this paper, may not reflect the thoughts and opinions of every high school …

Literacy And Covid-19 : Elementary Students' Reading Performance Through A Global Pandemic, Emmett Mcgregor Schweiger

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The critical area of literacy instruction has long relied on the use of measurement tools and the resulting data to identify at-risk readers and deliver needed supports. When the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption to education, measurement practices were altered and there was limited existing research available to predict the potential impact of the pandemic on literacy development. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the reading performance of students in a Southern Tier New York elementary school before and during the pandemic, utilizing existing data from fall 2019 to spring 2021. Additionally, this study sought to evaluate the …

Third- Through Fifth-Grade Males And The Reading Gap: Factors That Aid In The Reading Gap In Relation To Their Female Counterparts, Tina Alexander

Doctor of Education Dissertations

The study was designed to provide key factors that impact male reading gaps in relation to females using a quantitative approach. K-5 teachers and reading specialists were given a survey on reading and how it pertains to males and reading. The surveys consisted of the importance of reading, reading efficacy, reading avoidance, reading challenges, recognition for reading, social reasons for reading, reading curiosity, reading for grades, compliance, and competition in reading. I analyzed the perceptions of K-5 teachers and reading specialists as they relate to males and their reading gaps in relation to female students in a small school district. …