The purpose of this study is to share teachers' perceptions of their and other stakeholders' roles and influence during the implementation of an instructional policy, the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI), and its success. The TRI is a professional development (PD) program that uses a diagnostic reading model, a suggested set of reading…

This dissertation investigates the implications of student-teacher racial/ethnic matching on two educational outcomes. The fourth chapter investigates whether assignment to same-race teachers affects students' math and reading achievement growth in early elementary grades and whether the overall racial/ethnic composition of the teaching workforce…

National and regional trends mask important variation among states in the supply of high school graduates. This profile provides brief indicators for Montana related to: current levels of educational attainment, projections of high school graduates into the future, and two common barriers to student access and success--insufficient academic…

With the adoption of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, the federal government signaled its intention to close achievement gaps in K-12 education, particularly for minority students. While there has been surprising progress in educating disadvantaged students since the law was passed, according to a new report released today by Education…

Texas Administrative Code (BB § 89.1205) specifies that all elementary schools must offer a bilingual program to English Language Learners (ELLs) whose home language is spoken by 20 or more students in any single grade level across the entire district. Based on this rule, in addition to Spanish speaking ELLs, students speaking Vietnamese,…

The Parent Prep Academy (also referred to as the Academy) is a system of parent trainings and workshops in the Houston Independent School District (HISD). The courses are designed to strengthen families by developing parents as life-long learners. Within the Academy, courses are offered to provide information and resources empowering parents to…

The purpose of this varied replication study was to evaluate the effects of a supplemental reading intervention on the beginning reading performance of kindergarten students in a different geographical location and in a different instructional context from the initial randomized trial. A second purpose was to investigate whether students who…

Reading Recovery (RR) is a short-term early intervention designed to help the lowest-achieving readers in first grade reach average levels of classroom performance in literacy. Students identified to receive Reading Recovery meet individually with a specially trained Reading Recovery (RR) teacher every school day for 30-minute lessons over a…

This dissertation is comprised of two manuscripts that resulted from a single study using verbal protocols to examine the reading processes prompted by the graphics as second graders read informational text. Verbal protocols have provided researchers with an understanding of the processes readers use as they read. Little is known, however, about…

The purpose of this mixed quantitative and qualitative study was to examine whether a relationship exists between the perceptions of principal-based leadership practices and 5th grade reading achievement. Standardized assessment measures used were the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) and the 5th grade Connecticut Mastery…

This quantitative study focuses on the relationship between classroom quality and children's academic achievement. Specifically, it examines how classroom quality in three broad domains-- emotional climate, classroom management and instructional support--impact kindergarten achievement growth in mathematics and reading. The researcher collected…

This study is a mixed method examination of two elementary level Colorado Reading First Schools in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This study replicated a study conducted in two California Reading First elementary schools, in one Southern California School District. The purpose of the study was to examine whether there were differences in the…

This study examined the effect of closing public schools in Chicago on the academic achievement of students who had attended those schools. The study analyzed data on nearly 3,800 students in 18 elementary schools that were closed between 2001 and 2006 and nearly 4,700 students from 18 comparison schools. Academic achievement in reading and math…

In the past 12 years, middle and high school students across the United States have read with declining levels of proficiency compared to both international and national standards. It is thought that American students' overall low reading performance is related to the amount of expository material they must read with advancing grade levels. This…

This study investigated the effects of broad cognitive abilities derived from the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) taxonomy, together with the effect of the general factor ("g"), on Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition (WIAT-II) reading achievement. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and commonality analyses were applied to the…