Professional development (PD) is defined as ongoing learning opportunities available to educators and is known to be one of the most important tools in improving the effectiveness of teachers and teaching practices. Results from state and national reading assessments indicate that reading achievement among grade 4 and grade 8 students has…

This study used a phenomenological investigation to examine leaders' perceptions of the implementation and impact of reading intervention programs. This study aimed to gain new insight into implementation challenges and effectiveness of reading intervention in Title I schools and add to the literature about the impact of said interventions from…

READ 180 was adopted by a school district in Southern Alabama (SDSA) in response to students' low state reading and comprehension scores statewide. However, after years of implementation, it is unclear whether the READ 180 curriculum and the instructional practices characteristics of the READ 180 have been implemented with fidelity across district…

The number of elementary Mandarin dual language immersion (MDLI) programs continues to grow across the United States. The lack of available and proven effective Mandarin language arts curriculum and assessments aligned to state and world language standards, including age-appropriate and high-quality reading materials, remains a serious issue for…

Background: Reading instruction begins at the primary level with reading comprehension issues manifesting themselves by the 3rd-grade and becoming more pronounced by fourth-grade. While primary teachers often teach narrative comprehension skills, middle school teachers have the responsibility to teach both narrative and expository comprehension…

Many students struggle to understand what they read. The purpose of my study was to determine the relationship between teachers' instruction of three processes believed to help readers to become more engaged (purpose setting, questioning, and predicting), students' use of these engaged reader processes, and students' comprehension development. My…

This 5-week case study research used qualitative methods to understand and study the relationship between feedback from course instructors and supervisors, and how it is used in comprehension instructional choices by eight pre-service teachers. The following research questions directed this research: (1) What is the role of feedback in pre-service…

The current study evaluated the effects of short-term, structured teacher training in Active Reading on student outcomes in listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Active Reading is an approach to whole group read aloud that incorporates interactive shared reading and rich vocabulary instruction. Participants included…

In the middle school setting, reading is a requirement if students are to access the curriculum and demonstrate content proficiency. By grade three, students are expected to read on grade level, but by middle grades (7-8), some students still struggle with reading for comprehension. In addition, some middle school teachers struggle to implement…

This dissertation uses data from the evaluation of a Striving Readers project to examine the associations between levels of implementation of different components of Scholastic's "READ 180" and student achievement as measured on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) reading assessment. The approach was hierarchical linear modeling using…

In 2000, the National Reading Panel (NRP) identified scientifically based reading instructional practices in the five key areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency vocabulary, and comprehension. The purpose of this study was to determine the strength of the relationship between the degree of implementation of scientifically based reading…

Research has shown that there is a strong link between reading comprehension and vocabulary, yet many children lack the required vocabulary needed to perform adequately on reading comprehension assessments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the teaching of Larry Bell's 12 Powerful Words vocabulary program in order to raise third, fourth…

First grade teachers play a critical role in shaping the foundation for early literacy skills acquisition of primary students. Past research studies have indicated that primary students whose teachers followed the"Big 5 Ideas" to teach reading had higher reading abilities when compared to other students. The purpose of this current…

The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent struggling readers in the middle school (Grades 6-8) respond to interventions implemented through the response to intervention (RtI) model after being identified as having deficits in reading comprehension and fluency. The study examined progress of struggling sixth-grade students…

Students in a rural elementary school in the southeastern United States were not performing well in comprehension development. Educators at the school needed more information on ways to enhance student understanding and performance. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how elementary teachers' implemented comprehension…