<p> The purpose of this study was to determine effective reading interventions for primary grade students, utilizing the Response to Intervention (RtI) model. The purpose of RtI is to enhance the quality of education for children, if appropriate levels of academic instruction are present (Hanover Research, 2015). The research questions were posed to garner perspectives of the Intervention Team (IT) leaders as to Tier II interventions that aided students who indicated difficulty with reading, and the duration of the intervention, prior to achieving progress toward the specified goal. Additionally, research questions were stated to determine which Tier II reading intervention yielded a significant gain, as measured by a Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) in one elementary school. Perspectives were ascertained of literacy educators in regard to student success following the interventions. Intervention Team leaders from Missouri&rsquo;s 11 regional professional development centers were interviewed and asked specific questions in an effort to identify tiered reading interventions and progress measures present in their schools. Results of progress monitoring utilizing CBMs were collected from one Missouri elementary school and were analyzed utilizing a paired sample <i>t</i>-test comparing pre-test and post-test scores before and following a reading intervention. The data revealed Tier II reading interventions are effective for primary grade students. Literacy educators serving in the districts of the IT leaders were surveyed to garner insight into the positive attributes gained from receiving the tiered reading intervention. The results of the literacy educator survey attributed gains in student achievement and indicated positive outcomes for students in other subject areas</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the existing research on early literacy and the types of approaches used in schools at the time of this writing. Although researchers could not agree on which types of reading programs are the most effective, there was a large amount of research supporting the work done in 2000 from the National Reading Panel, emphasizing the importance of the five components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The study site historically used a traditional Balanced Literacy program, and reported proficiency scores in the 30th percentile overall. This research study investigated phonemic awareness and phonics as important components of a total literacy program, focusing on one supplementary program, Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words (SIPPS). SIPPS, combined with a traditional Balanced Literacy program, was implemented over a period of five years in a suburban, Midwest elementary school. Results indicated that overall reading achievement improved over the five year implementation, with the most significant growth occurring in the first grade. Growth was slow and not significant from year-to-year, but did improve in all subgroups, including Black students and the free-and-reduced-lunch subgroup. Given the importance of early literacy acquisition, future studies should investigate other supplementary programs available to identify the most effective programs for student achievement.</p>

<p> The purpose of this research project was to determine the effects of literature categories on student engagement. The participants of this research project were selected from a third grade elementary class. They were selected at random. The class was heterogeneous containing twenty-one students. The dependent variable in this project was the student engagement while the independent variable was the literature category. Data was collected for two weeks in each category on student engagement and observational notes were also recorded. This research project determined that the literature category of nonfiction produced a high student engagement when texts were selected based on student&rsquo;s interests. This study was and is important because educators can use this information to help with classroom lessons and to reach students through literature. </p>

<p> This mixed-methods study included an in-depth look at the perceptions of first-grade teachers in southwest Missouri to gain insight into the knowledge, understanding, and perceptions of teachers when considering reading achievement and how it relates to Reading Recovery, student engagement, professional development, and socioeconomic status. A second piece to the study included a quantitative examination of the correlation between reading achievement and attendance. Focus groups were formed and an 11-question interview was conducted to gather insight into the perceptions of first-grade teachers across five different counties. Additionally, reading data and attendance from 249 students in those schools were used to determine if a correlation exists between reading achievement and student attendance. After completion of all focus groups, it was evident many commonalities exist among first-grade teachers across multiple districts. Most teachers find value in Reading Recovery, understand the importance of student engagement, see the disadvantages of those students who arrive from lower socioeconomic status families, and value professional development. Reading and attendance data revealed students with attendance greater than 94% have improved reading achievement over those with attendance below 94%. The results of this study can provide insight for administrators and district leaders when considering appropriate professional development in the area of reading achievement.</p>

<p> Delays in the development of early literacy skills are associated with a wrath of negative educational outcomes and so addressing such delays is one of the most pressing challenges in education. This study examines the effectiveness of the Orton-Gillingham (OG) Method, a multisensory reading program where instruction utilizes two or more senses simultaneously. Originally developed in the 1930s as a program for dyslexic students, OG has seen continual use since its creation and is endorsed by the American Dyslexic Foundation and the International Dyslexic Foundation. Over the past two decades OG has increasingly been incorporated into general education settings in the primary grades as a reading intervention for struggling readers regardless of whether they have dyslexia. However, there is a dearth of research demonstrating its causal effect as a reading intervention for children with dyslexia or who are experiencing reading delays for other reasons. Two quasi-experimental methods, Regression Discontinuity Design and Nonequivalent Comparison Group Design with propensity scores, are used to test the efficacy of an OG-based, general education reading intervention on a sample of over 700 kindergarten and first grade students who are experiencing reading delays from a large district in California. The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessments were used to assign students to the intervention and measure their end-of-year reading outcomes. The results of both analyses revealed no effect for students enrolled in the intervention in either kindergarten or first grade. Within the year that students received the intervention, a small but non-significant gain on end-of-year DIBELS composite scores was found. Long-term outcomes showed that over half of the students in the intervention were still not meeting reading targets by the end of second grade. Moreover, while the treatment effect was found to vary significantly across classrooms and across schools, no available measures classroom or school characteristics where associated with that variation. These findings suggest that certain applications of the OG methodologies may not be effective in general education settings.</p>

<p> No Child Left Behind (NCLB) along with the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) have provided students with the opportunity to receive remedial services without having to be referred for diagnostic testing through a process referred to as Response to Intervention (RtI). While this process can prove to be beneficial for the student, the extra work that is being placed on teachers can cause teachers to form a negative perception of this process. In addition to the extra work, there is little research to support RtI in the secondary schools. Secondary school administrators are trying to implement RtI programs that were designed for self-contained elementary schools into a secondary setting and the results have not been favorable. This study aims to measure middle school teachers&rsquo; self-perceptions of RTI and how these perceptions affect their implementation of RtI with fidelity. </p>

<p> This dissertation reports design-based research that determined the characteristics of an effective intervention to improve adolescent historical argumentative writing. This study involved 89 diverse 11th grade students, including approximately 50% Hispanic students and 12% students with disabilities. It compared a treatment that taught students to write warrants using historical thinking to explain how evidence supports a claim, and a comparison treatment that taught students to find and evaluate evidence for particular claims and sides. Both groups read a text set about the controversy surrounding the explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine at the start of the Spanish-American War. The intervention was designed to improve student ability to 1) select effective warrants reflecting different types of historical thinking, 2) generate their own warrants when given a claim and evidence, and 3) write more effective warrants in their own argumentative essays. When the most reliable study measures were combined and analyzed using MANOVA, there was a significant overall treatment effect. Follow up ANOVAs indicated a statistically significant effect for selecting warrants, but not writing warrants. The mean difference was greatest in items reflecting corroboration, a heuristic that requires reading several documents and giving more weight to evidence found in common across accounts. Both conditions struggled to differentiate between more and less effective warrants. These findings matter because historical argumentative writing involves advanced literacy skills similar to those needed for online reading and engaged citizenship. Based on these findings, the intervention was refined to include additional scaffolding for collecting evidence across texts and explicit instruction in differentiating between more and less effective warrants. The findings were used to develop a theory of teaching argumentative writing to inform work in similar contexts. This theory emphasizes backwards planning of units centered around a historical controversy from the writing students will do at unit&rsquo;s end. It emphasizes the importance of teachers reading historical texts closely themselves and identifying where students can use historical thinking heuristics to warrant claims about the historical controversy. Through this approach, students build understanding of content and disciplinary literacy skills simultaneously through reading, reasoning, and writing across texts. </p>

<p> This study is an <i>ex post facto</i> correlational study that analyzed the mediated relationship between <i>everyday adult literacy practices (directions or instructions; letters, memos, or mail; newspapers or magazines; professional journals or publications; books, manuals or reference materials; financial statements; diagrams, maps, or schematics)</i> and <i> literacy scores,</i> using <i>vocabulary scores</i> as the mediator while controlling for <i>educational attainment, current educational practices, age,</i> and <i>number of books at home.</i> This study used the Program of International Assessment of Adult Competency (PIAAC) 2012/2014 public use household dataset which includes data from over 8,000 participants. This dataset contains information about participants&rsquo; background, daily lives, and reading practices as well as literacy, numeracy, and informational technology skills. Analyses were completed using the IDB analyzer to complete regression analyses on the final sample which included 1,599 participants who had taken both the literacy and print vocabulary assessment. The Sobel process was used to determine mediation. According to the Sobel test, the <i>vocabulary score</i> mediated the relationship between <i> reading letters, memos, or mail</i> (b = 4.18, SE = 0.23, <i>p</i> &lt; .001) and <i>newspapers or magazines</i> (b = 2.55, SE = 0.29, <i> p</i> &lt; .05) and the <i>combined plausible literacy score.</i> This showed that a portion of the ability to predict adult literacy scores from the frequency of reading letters, memos, or mail and newspapers or magazines could be due to vocabulary proficiency.</p><p>

<p> This qualitative study explored how incorporating picture books into a fourth grade reading program can enhance literacy instruction. Ten fourth grade students read, listened to, and shared twenty selected picture books over a twelve-week period in the classroom setting. The data sources included: observations, conferences, group discussions, student work samples, open ended comprehension assessments, a researcher-generated questionnaire, and a reflective journal. Data analysis using the constant comparative method yielded 38 codes and generated four themes. The themes reflected that picture books: promoted the use of comprehension strategies (visualization, activating background knowledge, determining importance, questioning, inferring, making connections and synthesizing); facilitated the instruction of literary elements; fostered student literary essay writing; and enhanced visual literacy, aesthetic awareness, and reading enjoyment. The study supports Rosenblatt&rsquo;s reader-response theory, whereby multiple interpretations of literature are valued. Implications for the classroom as well as for further research are presented.</p>

<p> This dissertation is a qualitative practitioner research study in which I explore how my students and I engage in critical literacy using sociopolitical Articles of the Week (AoWs). Critical literacy is the ability to read, write, and speak about texts in a reflective manner to better understand power, inequality, and injustice that prevails in the world. The two major questions that drove this study were: (1) How are eleventh-grade students&rsquo; perspectives evident in their discussions and reflective papers? (2) How do my students and I take up the opportunity to pursue a social action project in response to Articles of the Week? The twenty-two research participants for this study were students in one of my three eleventh-grade English classes. While I used AoWs in all three eleventh-grade sections, I conducted my research in only one of these sections. This class differed from the other two sections only in that these students planned and implemented their social action projects in groups in lieu of individual presentations of their research paper in the other two classes. </p><p> I collected six kinds of data: (1) scanned copies of students&rsquo; eight reflective papers based on AoWs; (2) transcriptions of eight video-recorded AoW discussions; (3) teacher journal; (4) students&rsquo; post AoW surveys; (5) scanned copies and/or photographs of students&rsquo; social action projects; and (6) transcription of a post social-action whole class video recorded discussion. I collected these data in four phases from October 2015 to June 2016. Every week, over eight weeks (October-December), students read an AoW. After, and as homework, they wrote a reflective paper and brought it to class at the end of the week (Friday), when we had a whole-class discussion. After reading eight AoWs, students chose and researched a social action, researching daily for six weeks. This six-week research project resulted in a research paper that satisfied the research requirement of the eleventh-grade English class. Finally, two days per week for five weeks, students implemented their group social action projects on these topics: (a) Gun control laws, (b) Syrian Refugees, and (3) School Start Later. </p><p> Using the constructivist grounded theory technique (Charmaz, 2000, 2006) and the two methodological frameworks&mdash;practitioner research and inquiry as stance (Cochran-Smith &amp; Lytle, 2009)&mdash;as well as the four dimensions of critical literacy (Lewison, Flint &amp; Sluys, 2002) to analyze and interpret my data, the following findings emerged: Findings to research question 1&mdash;most students appreciated considering multiple perspectives, both in writing and discussion. Students&rsquo; discussions demonstrated strong knowledge building in the following areas: incidental knowledge building; knowledge building with immediate effects; knowledge building by geography; and knowledge building as deliberation and debate. Findings to research question 2&mdash;social action projects involved two major activities: procedural activities and negotiating power. The procedural activities involved choosing a social action project, researching, and working in groups to implement the social action projects. The power analysis in this study revealed that examining multiple perspectives and including them in social action projects can work positively for students&mdash;social networks opened for students who provided a balanced perspective on topics. For students taking a one-sided perspective, social networks shut down. The results of this study have the potential to inform future practitioner researchers and critical pedagogues to develop new ways of building a critically reflective classroom that allows for robust social transformations that could influence educational policies because <i>teachers&rsquo; voices do matter</i>. </p><p>