An evaluation of teaching procedures and curricula of the primary grades of two local elementary schools according to criteria formulated from accepted educational psychology and democratic philosophy of educational leaders constitutes the problem at hand.

This thesis had its inception in the mind of the writer when, disturbed by third grade children's lack of interest and low level of linguistic achievement, she endeavored to find both a more effective means of encouraging children to acquire the tools of language and a more effective method of teaching children the fundamentals of language arts. The writer determined, therefore, to investigate an integrated language arts program in the hope that it would prove to be a more effective method of teaching.

The purpose of this study is to determine the philosophy, history, recent development and modern trends of story-telling in the primary grades.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the validity of a new teacher rating inventory, the Iowa Early Learning Inventory (IELI). It is intended to assess the young students' cognitive behaviors, behaviors related to or supportive of the learning process. It is intended to be useful for early identification of students who are likely to encounter learning difficulties later in their academic careers. The intended users are kindergarten and 1st grade teachers. The construct theory of the IELI was empirically derived using qualitative analysis of behavior statements obtained from relevant sources. Six areas of cognitive behaviors emerged from the qualitative analysis. The IELI was constructed to measure these areas using representative behaviors for item content. All six areas of cognitive behaviors had medium or strong correlations with each other and all had correlations of medium strength with ITBS achievement measures. Investigation of the relationship of individual cognitive behavior areas with selected measures of achievement supported that the IELI captures variance related to other measures of related constructs. Confirmatory factor analyses of the structure of the IELI investigated five models consisting of the six areas. None of the models was evaluated as adequately fitting the data. The most promising model consisted of six correlated areas or factors, each defined by the items intended to measure the respective cognitive area. Investigation of sex DIF identified a small number of potential problems in three of the six areas, but investigation of ethnic DIF was inconclusive but called for further investigation. Overall, the results indicated that the IELI provides useful and valid information about the cognitive relationships of early learners.

The problem of this study is to determine the trends in the Nature Study in Texas with reference to the quantity and quality of printed materials for primary grades and the trends in methods of presenting them.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of small group vocabulary instruction above and beyond whole group, read aloud vocabulary instruction, on second grade students' expressive vocabularies.  This experimental study reflected a between-subjects design as three treatment groups were compared using a pretest, posttest within subjects variable methodology.  A small group instructional intervention was administered to a treatment group in addition to the whole group, read-aloud based vocabulary instruction that the alternative treatment group received.  Data was collected over an eight week intervention period.  Results indicated that small group vocabulary instruction led to greater gains in second grade students' expressive use of target words than did read aloud-based instruction or no instruction (control).  Additionally, students who received small group instruction retained more target word knowledge over time than students who did not receive small group instruction.  Implications for practice and future research are included. / Ph. D.

Poverty is a social context that has direct impact on students' performance since the conditions associated with poverty (brain development, social interactions, nutrition, and emotional environment) all play a role in developmental outcomes. Head Start is an early intervention program designed to address the unique needs of students from poverty. The Head Start Impact Study (DHHS, ACF, 2012) and other research (Lee, Brooks-Gunn, and Schnur, 1988; Ramey and Ramey, 2004) indicate that the academic achievement of low-income students who participated in Head Start is mixed as they move through elementary school. The purpose of the Head Start program is to prepare students with skills so that they begin kindergarten on an even playing field with their more advantaged peers (DHHS, ACF, 2013). Although students who participate in Head Start begin kindergarten with the appropriate readiness skills, initial gains are not maintained as they move through elementary school (Burkham and Lee, 2002). The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the effects of the Head Start program as its students move through kindergarten and first grade. In the study, I analyzed data to find relationships between student performance on the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) (University of Virginia, 2010) and classroom practices that led to high achievement. Two Title I schools were studied. PALS scores were analyzed using t-tests, ANOVAs and multiple regressions. Reading performance in second grade was measured using scores from the Developmental Reading Assessment (Beave, 2006). Qualitative data were collected through interviews, focus groups, and document reviews. These data were utilized to make connections between the results of PALS and reading scores and the best practices being used in schools that showed strong results for the kindergarten and first grade students in the study. By triangulating data, I uncovered relationships between best practice strategies being used in high performing schools and achievement of former Head Start enrollees. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to determine if an association existed between student achievement scores and classroom practices used among third-grade teachers in Upper East Tennessee. The variables included classroom environment, instructional context, and social context, employing developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). Teacher characteristics, including type of degree, highest degree, years of experience, level of DAP knowledge, and degree granting institution, were analyzed for characteristics influencing developmentally appropriate practices. The instrument, Assessment of Practices in Early Elementary Classrooms (APEEC), was used to gather information; the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP/CRT) Reading/Language and Mathematics scores were used to determine student' achievement level. A demographic survey was used to collect teacher characteristic information. An initial analysis of data incorporated simple descriptive statistics in the form of frequency tables. Independent samples t tests, analyses of variance (ANOVAs), and Pearson Product moment correlation coefficients were used to determine if there were associations in DAP levels among teacher characteristics. Finally, one-way-analysis of variance assessed the associations between the dependent variables (TCAP/CRT scores) and independent variables (environment, instruction, and social context). The analysis of the data indicated that the majority of the third-grade teachers were certified in elementary education. Over half of the sample had master's degrees or above. Six had not taught any grades except third. The third-grade teachers had less experience in teaching kindergarten and more experience in first and second grades. An independent-samples t test indicated no significant differences in APEEC scores between teachers with early childhood degrees and teachers with other degrees; no significant differences in APEEC scores between teachers with a bachelor's degree and teachers with a master's or higher degree; and no significant differences between degree granting institutions. Correlation coefficients indicated APEEC scores were not significantly affected by teachers' years of experience. ANOVAs indicated significant differences in APEEC physical environment and social environment scores among teachers having a great deal of DAP knowledge but not in classroom instruction. ANOVAs indicated significant differences in classroom instruction and student achievement scores in Reading/Language, but not in Math. No significant differences were found in APEEC social and physical context scores.

The focus in this article is on integrating instruction in reading fluency with mathematical concept development in the primary grades. Procedures are described herein for having students engage in hands-on mathematics while reading children's literature. In addition, students produce an audio compact disk and engage in performance reading in a readers' theater ormat with stick puppets. The strategies presented can be adapted in a variety of learning environments.

This study set out primarily to investigate the nature of reading comprehension instruction in Saint Lucia, and to examine the explanations of teachers with regard to the factors that they perceive contribute to Grade 6 students' failure in the main idea comprehension test in the national Common Entrance Examination in Saint Lucia. Four effective Grades 5 and 6 teachers (two per grade) from two Saint Lucian primary schools participated in a total of four individual semi-structured interviews and were observed in their regularly scheduled reading comprehension lessons. A total of 27 lessons were observed and audio tape-recorded to examine the nature of reading comprehension instruction in the classrooms. From this cohort of lessons, a sample of 16 lessons was randomly selected and transcribed to determine the presence of direct instruction in comprehension strategies, and the quality of instruction that took place. This quality was measured and described in terms of the elements of the Direct Instruction Model (Pearson Dole, 1987), the nature of questioning, and time allotted to instruction. This data was also used to make comparisons between Grades 5 and 6 classes. The results show that the four teachers perceived that there are four areas of blame for students' poor performance in reading comprehension: the teacher's inability to instruct, the students' poor decoding and comprehension abilities, the inadequacy of the main idea test, and the teaching materials available for teaching comprehension. However, the main factor perceived by teachers as contributing to the students' poor performance is teachers' inability to instruct. Nonetheless, the observation of the Grades 5 and 6 effective teachers' reading comprehension lessons showed that these teachers were indeed teaching a number of comprehension strategies. They relied predominantly on the question answering strategy in all their lessons which was mainly taught in combination with other strategies. However, it was the teaching of summarization through the main idea that was the dominant strategy more explicitly taught in 7 of the 16 lessons observed, appearing more frequently in the Grade 6 classes. An assessment of the quality of the reading comprehension instruction revealed that 11 of1 6 lessons, included all the four elements of direct instruction, and were rated as 'excellent' in quality. None of the lessons had fewer than two elements identified on the model. An assessment of the types of questions asked also showed that questioning was used both for the purpose of assessment and as an instructional strategy. The timing of the lessons support the quality of instruction, as 90% of the total time observed was allotted to instruction. The greater portion of that time went to guided practice (38%) and independent practice (33%) of reading comprehension strategies. This study shows that explicit comprehension instruction of strategies is evident in the reading comprehension classes of the 4 effective Saint Lucian Grades 5 and 6 teachers. It is therefore recommended that educational officials ensure that similar practices are maintained in other Saint Lucian classes, that the reading comprehension instruction practices of a wider cross section of Saint Lucian teachers be examined, and that future research looks into other probable causes of students' failure on the main idea comprehension test.