Education Commons^™

Using Generalizability And Rasch Measurement Theory To Ensure Rigorous Measurement In An International Development Education Evaluation, Louise Bahry

Doctoral Dissertations

Between the United States and Great Britain, over 30 billion USD was spent in 2018 on international aid, over a billion of which is dedicated to education programs alone. Recently, there has been increased attention on the rigorous evaluation of aid-funded programs, moving beyond counting outputs to the measurement of educational impact. The current study uses two methodological approaches (Generalizability (Brennan, 1992, 2001) and Rasch Measurement Theory (Andrich, 1978; Rasch, 1980; Wright & Masters, 1982) to analyze data from math and literacy assessments, and self-report surveys used in an international evaluation of an educational initiative in the Democratic Republic of …

Using Multiliteracies To Engage And Empower Students With Complex Support Needs, Sudha Vaghul Krishnan

Doctoral Dissertations

Using Multiliteracies to Engage and Empower Students with Complex Support Needs This dissertation is comprised of two studies:

• Creating New Learning Spaces Using Multiliteracies with Students with Complex Support Needs

• Transforming Narrative Identity through Multiliteracies

Students with complex support needs (SCSN) are frequently denied access to meaningful and challenging literacy instruction. These studies explore how student- authored narratives in the individualized education plan (IEP), implemented during a multiliteracies curriculum, can simultaneously engage and empower SCSN. These studies are based on the qualitative research that I conducted from November 15, 2018 to February 11, 2018 at a special day …

Let’S Take An Adventure: Exploring Beginner Writing In Chinese By Non-Heritage Learner, Ping Geng

Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract Due to the globalization and economic growth, both the U.S. and Chinese governments increased their investment in Chinese language education across the US, especially in K-12 schools (Shi, 2010). This rapid development demands tremendous support, especially from the research on Chinese language learning and teaching. Unfortunately the research in this area is very limited, particularly on writing in Chinese. For those whose first language is alphabetical, writing in Chinese is tremendously difficult. Learners of Chinese usually do not compose writing until intermediate high level, before which learners usually learn to decode and write Chinese characters (Ke, 1998; Shen, 2005). …

Maximizing Test Efficiency: The Effects Of Test Format On Nonsense Word Reading, Amanda Kern

Doctoral Dissertations

A repeated measures study was conducted to determine the effects of test format on accuracy and fluency performance on a computer-based, nonsense word, decoding task. Decoding is a phonics skill that is highly predictive of overall reading performance (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007). Therefore, identifying students who are struggling with decoding and providing instruction to remedy skill deficits is of high importance to teachers. A possible way for teachers to determine the instructional needs of their students is through testing (Hosp & Ardoin, 2008). However, time dedicated to test completion in classrooms limits the time available for instruction. Therefore, …

Secondary Teachers’ Perspectives On Response To Intervention: A National Study, Rachelle Sarah Savitz

Doctoral Dissertations

Response to Intervention is a policy that has been implemented across the country to reduce the number of students incorrectly identified Specific Learning Disabled (SLD), and to enhance the educational outcomes for all students. While most states provide guidelines or frameworks for implementation, there generally is not much provided for individual states and districts regarding how to implement RTI in their schools. With implementation happening at the secondary level and most secondary educators not having a literacy background, there is a need to find out more regarding teachers’ perceptions. This mixed-methods sequential design exploration study first used a national survey …

Assessing The Impact Of Picture Books In Primary Grades Mathematics Instruction, Jessica Stone

Doctoral Dissertations

This study documents an educational field experiment evaluating the effects of picture books on primary students’ mathematical achievement and their dispositions towards mathematics. The study involved 136 primary grade students from one elementary school in the southeastern region of the United States. The student population had an overrepresentation of students from minority backgrounds (91%), low socioeconomic status (93%) and English Language Learners (47%). During the 18-week treatment period, teacher participants from the treatment group received bi-weekly collaborative professional development regarding the use of picture books in mathematics instruction. The teachers in the control group followed their district’s mathematics curriculum.

To …

The Effect Of A District-Wide Literacy Initiative On English/ Language Arts Standardized Test Scores, Sheri R. Robken

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a District-Wide Literacy initiative that implemented the 18 literacy strategies and Silent Sustained Reading activities incorporated in the 2008 Revised Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum on English/Language Arts standardized test scores. Standardized test scores were obtained for seventh and eighth grade students from a control group (n=204, 2006-2008 tests administrations) and an experimental group (n=185, 2008-2010 test administrations). An Analysis of Variance was used to determine significance (p

Practices And Routines In Siwi Lessons That Develop Skills In Reading, Paulson A. Skerrit

Doctoral Dissertations

The average performance of Deaf and hard of hearing (D/hh) students on test of reading comprehension is several grade equivalents below their high school hearing peers. The reading-writing connection is one way to address the literacy challenges of D/hh learners. This study explored that connection in instruction that was driven with a high fidelity to the principles of Strategic Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI). The data for this study came from two grade three classes involved in the second half of a Year II project that was part of a 3-year Institute of Education Sciences-funded project to develop SIWI for use …

Reading Queerly In The High School Classroom: Exploring A Gay And Lesbian Literature Course, Kirsten Helmer

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how teaching an English literature curriculum centered on the stories, experiences, cultures, histories, and politics of LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) people constitutes a meaningful site for teaching and learning in a high school classroom. The dissertation offers insights on how the teaching of LGBTQI-themed texts in English language arts classes can be reframed by bridging the goals, practices and conceptual tools of queer theory to critical literacies teaching. The project follows principles of critical qualitative research and employs an ethnographic case study approach with the purpose of transforming educational …

Deficit Discourse, Literate Lives: Success Narratives Of Black Youth, Ann Marie Bennett

Doctoral Dissertations

The current dialogue surrounding Black youth portrays these youth as “thugs” who come from “broken” families and “apathetic” communities. Even some educational discourses portray Black youth as “at-risk” students who lack the resources necessary to achieve in school. These dialogues traffic in deficit language without paying attention to the successes found in the Black community. The purpose of this study was to utilize an anti-deficit perspective to capture the stories of how urban Black children in a mid-sized Southeastern city are achieving positive literacy and academic outcomes in the upper elementary and middle grades. I sought to understand how Black …

Families Of Struggling Readers In The Accountability Era: A Collective Ethnographic Case Study Of Literacy Engagement And Interaction In The Home And School, Sarah Lynn Swauger

Doctoral Dissertations

This collective case study uses ethnographic methods to explore the literacy engagement and school interactions of two families of struggling adolescent readers within the accountability era following the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a time period where there have been as yet few studies (e.g. Compton-Lilly, 2009) focused on family literacy. Formal and informal interviews with students and their guardians as well as observations and document analysis were the main data sources. Results illuminated the influence of school policies and curricula on students’ families’ interactions and identities (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). The researcher found that families lacking cultural …

The People Who Do ‘This’ In Common: Book Clubs As ‘Everyday Activists’, Julie E. Tyler

Doctoral Dissertations

This study of the Books-N-Wine club in Knoxville, Tennessee participates in a growing body of research on reading communities. Since the 1980s, researchers have investigated book clubs as social-intellectual phenomena whose history dates back to eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Intersecting with the development of the public sphere and even fueling concrete social movements, book clubs comprise a “shadow tradition of literature.” Current research suggests that contemporary clubs continue to advance this “shadow tradition” and have the potential to teach and transform their constituencies. Several areas remain unexplored in research on book clubs, including the ways in which particular categories of …

The Influence Of Kindergarten And First-Grade Literacy Instruction On The 3rd- And 5th-Grade Students' Reading Achievement : Findings From The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class, 1998-1999, Shu Yu Sophia Huang

Doctoral Dissertations

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A Content Analysis Of The Two State-Approved Kindergarten And First Grade Reading Programs In California, Elizabeth Anne Presley

Doctoral Dissertations

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The Effect Of Literature Mapping Of Basal Vocabulary On Word Knowledge And Comprehension, Andrea Lynn Morris

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether two instructional interventions in reading that utilize literature mapping within a story element frame, T-CaPS MaP via transparency mapping, or computer-designed mapping via Inspiration, would affect reading ability of leveled sixth grade groups. T-CaPS MaP, designed by the researcher, is a combination of well-known story grammars that was used to expand and enhance basal vocabulary instruction. T represents the title of the story, C represents characters in the story; arepresents and; P represents point of view of the author; S represents setting of the story; M represents the mood of …

The Relationships Of Teachers' Levels Of Technology Integration On Student Achievement In Reading And Mathematics, Valerie S. Fields

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent the level of technology integration of fourth and eighth grade teachers in eleven rural school districts in northeastern Louisiana related to student achievement in reading and mathematics.

The sample consisted of 123 fourth and eighth grade teachers and their students from the eleven rural school districts in northeastern Louisiana. Fifty-eight percent of the teachers represented the fourth grade and 42% of the teachers represented the eighth grade. The teachers served a school age population in which 20% or more was from families with incomes below the poverty line.

Mean …

A Case Study Of Reading Education For Middle School Students With Learning Disabilities, John Arthur Sargent

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate The Achieve Reading Curriculum, a reading curriculum based on whole language principles designed for middle school students with learning disabilities. A qualitative intrinsic case study was conducted using four sixth grade middle school students with learning disabilities as participants. Ethnographic methodology was used to focus on the multifaceted structure of classroom life and to acquire a thorough understanding of the connections between participants and teacher. A teacher as researcher approach facilitated insights on a daily basis due to the interaction between participants and teacher.

Data collection procedures included observations/field notes, teacher journal, …