A Study of Early Literacy Interventions on the College and Career Readiness of High School Students Identified as Struggling Readers in First Grade

This study examined the college and career readiness of high school graduates who, as struggling first grade readers, successfully completed a specific, research based literacy intervention. By examining students’ Gates MacGinitie Reading Test (GMRT) scores (2002–2009), ACT PLAN test results from 10th grade, ACT test scores from 11th or 12th grade, and course enrollment throughout their high school careers, the degree to which the students were prepared to enter college or the work force was examined. College and career readiness was defined using guidelines and benchmarks outlined in the Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practice, 2010) and those determined by the ACT corporation (ACT, 2013). This study sought to link literacy intervention efforts in grades K–1 to the college and career readiness of students as they graduate high school. It also sought to add to the body of knowledge regarding literacy instruction and intervention and the nationwide focus to ensure that all students are college and career ready as they graduate high school. The study found that the majority of the students who received early literacy intervention were reading at grade level by the end of eighth grade. However, few of the students studied met college and career readiness benchmarks by the time they graduated high school

K-8 Preservice Teachers’ Statistical Thinking When Determining Best Measure of Center

The purpose of this study was to determine K-8 preservice teacher (PST) candidates’ statistical thinking when selecting the best center representation for the given data. Forty-four PSTs enrolled in a Statistics and Probability for K-8 Teachers course in a university located in the southeastern region of the United States were asked to complete a 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress test item. All 44 PSTs’ data were qualitatively analyzed for correctness and statistical thinking strategies used. Findings were that most PSTs either incorrectly selected the mean, rather than median, as the best measure of center for the given data or did not use appropriate statistical reasoning when explaining their answers. Future research includes modifying the explanation component so PSTs must better explain their statistical thinking for their choice of best measure of center using the context of the problem. Future research could also include implementing a pre- and post-test design with the post-test item embedded in the final exam. This design will provide additional understanding of how much knowledge PSTs bring to the course versus how much they learn in the course and provide incentive for giving thoughtful consideration for their answers

The Effects of Implementing Close Reading in A Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade Public School Setting to Improve Student Achievement

The purpose of this ex-post facto, causal-comparative study is to determine the effects of close reading on student achievement. Close reading is a strategy developed through literary criticism and the influences of I. A. Richards and the New Critics. This study analyzes close reading to determine the most efficient practice to help students develop critical reading, thinking, and written communication skills. The researcher examined 2013 to 2015 New York State English Language Arts Exam data from 10 school districts located in the Broome-Tioga BOCES Region. For the study, 6,040 student exams in Grades 3, 4, and 5 were analyzed. Using these data, this study examined whether a close-reading approach to literacy has a greater effect on student achievement in comparison to non-close-reading approaches. Data analysis was conducted using an ANOVA to compare means among schools that adapted, adopted, or did not use the New York State English Language Arts Modules. The statistical data revealed that adopting the New York State Modules does not increase students receiving a proficient or highly score on the New York State ELA Exam. With these results, the researcher concludes that prescribed curriculum does not guarantee higher student achievement over the manner in which a teacher presents close reading and motivates student learning. Recommendations for further research focus on examining exam results from multiple regions from around the state, as well as focusing a qualitative study on how teachers instruct with close reading in the three learning environments

The effect of response format and presentation conditions on comprehension assessments for students with and without a reading disability

Previous studies (Collins, 2015; Kennan & Meenan, 2014) have shown how variations in text and task factors and individual reader skills affect performance on reading comprehension assessments. The present study examined whether different presentation conditions (silent reading, watching a video) and response formats (open-ended vs. multiple-choice questions) influenced comprehension performance for students with and without reading disabilities. In addition, measures of word-level reading, vocabulary, working memory, listening comprehension, and prior knowledge were also assessed to determine the best predictors of performance on comprehension assessments. Participants were 32 fifth grade students, 17 with reading disabilities (RD) and 15 typically developing (TD) students. All students were initially administered measures of word-level reading, vocabulary, listening comprehension, working memory, and decoding. Students were then administered four passages. Two of the passages were read silently and two were presented with videos. For each condition (text and video), comprehension was assessed with open-ended and multiple-choice questions. All assessments were administered individually to each student across two 60-minute testing sessions. All students were found to perform significantly better on the multiple-choice questions than the open-ended questions. As expected, the TD group had significantly higher comprehension scores on all measures. Presentation condition did not significantly affect performance for either group. Listening comprehension, working memory, and prior knowledge contributed unique variance to performance on the different response formats. For the open-ended questions, 67% of the variance was explained by the measures of listening comprehension and prior knowledge. In contrast, only 38% of the variance was explained by working memory for the multiple-choice questions. Even though students performed better on the multiple-choice questions, the regression analyses indicated that the open-ended questions were better reflections of basic language abilities and prior knowledge. Open-ended questions appear to provide a better measure of reader and text factors than multiple-choice questions which are more influenced by task factors. Future studies should continue to examine how reader, text and task factors influence comprehension performance

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe U.S. finishes in the bottom fifth of industrialized nations in math achievement, based on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) classifies almost 10% of U.S. students as low achieving, and students with disabilities score particularly poorly on such assessments. Experts describe U.S. students as lacking conceptual understanding and requiring remedial instruction in math. When implemented across multiple grade and ability levels, math instruction incorporating a concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) sequence has increased math achievement. Writing To Learn Math (WTLM) is a strategy proven through research to improve students’ conceptual understanding through writing. CRA and WTLM have similar cognitive foundations, yet no studies have evaluated a combination of CRA and WTLM. Combining CRA and WTLM has the potential to address the challenges of adjusting to the national Common Core standards and assessments, which include improving conceptual understanding and writing across all content areas. This unique combination of interventions could offer promising results for effective curriculum development and remedial instruction. This study included three ninth-grade students from a suburban school who are below state proficiency levels in math, and employed a single-subject across-participants design to investigate the following research questions: (1) What is the effect of implementing a concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) instructional sequence incorporating writing to learn math strategies on students with disabilities’ proficiency in solving rate of change problems, and (2) Do students with disabilities find WTLM math and a CRA instructional sequence to be socially acceptable? Results indicated that the CRA + Writing intervention may be effective in improving students’ with disabilities understanding of rate of change. All 3 students improved their scores on the math items of the rate of change probes, and maintained these improvements on maintenance assessments administered between 1 and 7 weeks following the completion of the intervention. Two of the 3 students also displayed moderate improvements in their scores on the writing items of the rate of change probes. The findings of this study provide multiple implications for both research and practice, as well as several directions for future research

Re-designing Mathematics Education for Social Justice: A Vision

With a recent push within recent years incorporate issues of social justice within mathematics classrooms, it is important to consider the practicality of addressing these issues in classrooms. Using a theoretical framework developed through a historical analysis of mathematics and its development in school systems around the world, this paper addresses aspects of the current US educational system that limit the feasibility of incorporating social justice in mathematics classrooms. The author also provides recommendations for the field that might pave the way for progress towards a socio-analytical focus in mathematics classrooms in the future

Effects of an inference intervention for a third grader with a math disability

This case study investigated the effects of a repeated intervention, aimed at improving a third-grade student’s ability to make inferences while reading. The participant was a 7 year old, black male from an urban, Midwest city who qualifies for special education services in the category of Specific Learning Disability (SLD) for mathematics. Making inferences was chosen as the focus of the intervention because this skill is critical not only to reading comprehension, but also to the comprehension of story problems in math, which is the student’s area of need. The strategy “background knowledge + textual clues = inference” was used to infer missing words in cloze sentences and infer obscured sentences in passages, as well as answer implicit questions regarding instructional level texts. The results indicate that the participant improved in the three main intervention activities included in the daily procedures, as well as in an informal inference assessment using pictures. However, the participant’s scores for implicit questions on the QRI-5, a reading assessment, did not improve. The participant’s progress was complicated by struggles to attend tasks. Although the results suggest that the participant gained some of the foundational skills necessary for making inferences, it is evident that the skills have not yet transferred to making inferences for longer, more challenging passages, such as those found in the QRI-5

Town of Benton, New Hampshire annual report of town officers and Benton school district year ending December 31, 2011.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire

Preschool Writing Instruction: Modeling the Writing Stages

Writing is an essential component of language development and early literacy. With the growing focus on national and state education standards, the early foundation of writing and literacy skills proves to be an area of importance and concern; however, limited research has been conducted in the area of preschool writing instruction. This study investigated writing and other foundational literacy skills in preschoolers following three different instructional conditions. Preschoolers (n=85), who attended a preschool educational setting serving low-income families, were randomly assigned to classrooms in three research groups: control, comparison, and treatment. The control group participated in implicit writing experiences and instruction, typical in many preschool classrooms. Students in the comparison group received biweekly modeled adult writing instruction, and students in the treatment group received biweekly modeled emergent writing instruction over a 10 week period of time. Pre- and post-assessment of early literacy skills indicated that children who received modeled emergent writing and those who received modeled adult writing demonstrated statistically significant improvement in their early writing skills compared to children in the control group who did not receive explicit writing instruction. Results indicated no statistical significance for letter knowledge, print concept, and phonological awareness skill growth between the research groups. Writing skill growth occurred among 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old participants. This study contributes to the knowledge base of the most effective and efficient form of writing instruction for preschool children building early literacy foundations needed for later achievement

The Influence of Weblogs on English Oral Proficiency in English Language Learners

This research investigated the effect of blogging on oral proficiency in English Language Learners (ELLs). Specifically, the study aimed to prove that participation in written blog posts would transfer to increased speaking proficiency as determined by three measures of oral proficiency. These measures were 1) established scores on the W-APT Speaking Test, 2) average length of utterances and 3) time to produce an effective response on the W-APT. The researcher worked with eight participants who were ELLs at language proficiency levels one through five on a six point scale at the start of the study. The results indicated that blogging increased scores for all three measures of oral proficiency, with the most notable gains in time to produce an effective response and average length of utterances