This intervention mixed methods study used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the effects of an after-school book club on third-grade boys' reading achievement, attitudes, and preferences. During the 2015-2016 school year, seven third-grade boys from a South Texas elementary school attended an after-school book club in their school library…

African American and other students of color have continued to score lower than White students in many classrooms and on achievement tests in every subject, especially in reading. The purpose of this study was to explore if there is a relationship between a teacher's cultural responsiveness and their third grade African American students'…

Aim/Purpose: IStation is an adaptive computer-based reading program that adapts to the learner's academic needs. This study investigates if the IStation computer-based reading program promotes reading improvement scores as shown on the STAR Reading test and the IStation test scaled scores for elementary school third-grade learners on different…

This convergent parallel mixed method sought to determine if the reading program increased third-grade student achievement. The research questions of the study examined the reading achievement scores of third-grade students and the effectiveness of McGraw-Hill Reading Wonders™. Significant differences were observed when a paired sample t test…

An existing school program in which therapy dogs are integrated into the reading curriculum was analyzed to determine the effect on student reading. Previous literature suggests an improvement in both reading skills and attitudes towards reading when students read in the presence of a therapy dog. Using a mixed method model, the researchers…

Improving foundational academic skills for elementary level students continues to be a challenge for classroom teachers. This study implemented weekly progress monitoring procedures using curriculum-based measurement assessments in conjunction with weekly individual student-teacher graphing and goal-setting conferences to determine the effect the…

Randomized experiments are often considered the strongest designs to study the impact of educational interventions. Perhaps the most prevalent class of designs used in large scale education experiments is the cluster randomized design in which entire schools are assigned to treatments. In cluster randomized trials (CRTs) that assign schools to…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the academic achievement in reading among students enrolled in single-gender and coeducational classes, as well as the impact of teachers' perceptions on the outcome of academic achievement. The study used a mixed-method approach to address this purpose. This study reported…

Students reading below grade proficiency have been a concern for educators. Students who attended third grade at this Title 1 intermediate school have demonstrated a lack of early literacy skills as measured using a variety of assessments. An early literacy reading program was initiated in 2008; however, the effectiveness of the instructional…

The study was implemented in the Title I Marinette School District using a randomized experimental design and parallel quasi experimental design spanning three grades 1-3 in 3 district elementary schools. The Remediation Plus Intervention is a multi-sensory, systematic synthetic phonics curriculum for all ages of students who struggle with…

This dissertation was designed to provide a comprehensive data-driven evaluation of a Chinese language Immersion Program (CIP) for the stakeholders. CIP was implemented in 2006 with a goal for students to become proficient in the Chinese language and develop increased cultural awareness while reaching at least the same level of academic…

The educational community has raised several concerns regarding the identification of students with disabilities. Growing numbers of students classified in the Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) category have prompted much discussion. Available research on SLD classification raises issues regarding the traditional ability/achievement discrepancy…

Teaching reading in the mainstream classroom is a challenge. This challenge is compounded when trying to meet the needs of English language learners. Recently, Response to Intervention (RTI) has been suggested as a framework for classroom teachers to use in order to meet the wide range of needs of their students. The purpose of this study was to…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the Sing, Spell, Read, Write (SSRW) phonics curriculum that uses explicit and systematic methods and incorporates music to teach literacy skills implemented as a tier-two reading intervention in the Response to Intervention process to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of English…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a reading intervention program used with second and third grade students identified as not meeting grade level expectancy. Studies have indicated students who are not reading at grade level by the end of the third grade have an increasingly difficult time achieving at the rate of their…