Education Commons^™

School Librarians’ Teacher Self-Efficacy: A Predictor Of Reading Scores?, Jessica Thompson, Michelle Barthlow, Kelly Paynter

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Teacher self-efficacy, the belief teachers have that they can make a difference for their students or have a positive impact on their students’ academic careers, has been studied for years. Very little is known about teacher self-efficacy in school librarians, however. The following study examined the difference in school librarians’ teacher self-efficacy among those who worked in elementary, middle, and high schools. The study also attempted to determine if elementary school librarians’ self-efficacy could be a predictor of reading scores for the schools’ overall average rates on the Virginia Standards of Learning assessment. This quantitative study addressed the gaps in …

Effect Of Vocabulary Test Preparation On Low-Income Black Middle School Students’ Reading Scores, Ingrid Mitchell, Nicolae Nistor, Beate Baltes, Michelle Brown

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Black middle school students in the United States continue to perform poorly on standardized reading achievement tests in comparison to other racial and ethnic groups. The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of a vocabulary-focused test preparation program for Black middle school students. The theoretical framework consisted of Thorndike’s concept of test-wiseness, a test-taking capacity. Teachers at the research site were trained on Larry Bell’s 12 Powerful Words strategy that aims to make students test-wise, that is, to familiarize them with key vocabulary terms related to tests. An intact-group comparison was conducted, involving a total of …

Educational Initiatives In Kps, Marta Lachowska, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

We study the effects of two educational initiatives on student outcomes: the summer literacy program for incoming 6th graders and double blocking for middle school students. The Kalamazoo Public Schools summer literacy program was first implemented as an experiment in 2008 and 2009 and then expanded universally in 2010. Starting in the 2010-11 school year, KPS is “double blocking” students in middle school who on the prior MEAP scored below some cutoff. “Double blocking” means that students were selected for the program, and we can readily model the effects of the program using a “regression discontinuity” evaluation.

Writing Instruction And Standardized Reading Scores Among Secondary Students, Donna B. Feldman

ETD Archive

The reading scores on the Nation's Report Card for 2007 indicate that not all children share the same proficiency in literacy. Reading and writing require the use of similar cognitive processes, yet few studies focus on this relationship or how writing can be a tool for reading remediation. The research questions in this study addressed the extent to which: (a) differences occur in the time spent on writing instruction by genre, instructional methodology, and the phase of writing between middle and high school teachers (b) the amount of time teachers provide writing instruction, the instructional methodology, the genre addressed in …

A Correlational Study Of The Effect Of Per Pupil Expenditure On Standardized Third Grade Reading Scores In Missouri, John Arthur Dunahm Jr.

Theses

Funding of education has long been a major topic of discussion in both the public and political arenas. How tax dollars are spent in the area of education is now at the forefront of this debate with the advent of mechanisms which are designed to hold schools accountable for their funding. The chief mechanism of accountability is standardized testing achievement by students.

In this study, per-pupil expenditures for schools districts in the state of Missouri, for the years 1998 and 2002, will be examined as a correlation to high student achievement on the Missouri Assessment Program third grade communication arts …