The problem in this study was to determine whether the availability of reading material in the home and a child 's socio-economic classification were sufficiently significant to be utilized in helping to predict the reading readiness and reading achievement of first-grade children.

This quantitative study has two purposes. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate how teachers’ perceptions of principals’ instructional leadership affects student achievement in Texas suburban elementary schools. The secondary purpose of the study was to learn whether school demographic variables or prior achievement predict the level of instructional leadership elementary school teachers report for their principals. The primary outcome of instructional leadership was the achievement of fifth grade students who attended five select suburban elementary school districts in Texas for the 2011 – 2012 school year. The data collected for this research examined the two-year performance of the fifth grade students on their Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills reading test. Data were also collected from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade elementary teachers who attended one of the 97 participating schools from the five school districts. The teachers completed a voluntary survey during a faculty meeting. The survey asked teachers to report their perceptions of instructional leadership. The survey questions tapped four primary areas of instructional leadership: setting goals, providing professional development, monitoring and providing feedback, and establishing high standards. The main hypothesis was that instructional leadership would have a direct effect on student achievement. A variety of statistical techniques, such as factor analysis and multilevel analyses, were utilized for this study. A factor analysis method was used to create a measure of degree for instructional leadership in schools and multiple regression methods were utilized to test the relationship between instructional leadership and school SES, ethnicity, and prior achievement. This study found a modest direct relationship between instructional leadership and reading achievement. More specifically, teachers’ perceptions of instructional leadership were a marginally statistically significant and positive predictor of between school variation in student achievement in reading. Additionally, the study revealed that the school socioeconomic status, ethnic composition, and prior achievement do not predict instructional leadership. Implications of the findings for future research and practice are discussed.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-58).

This study sought to determine if participation in a home education learning program would impact the perceived levels of parental self-efficacy of parents/caregivers who participate in the completion of home-learning assignments and increase their levels of home-learning involvement practices. Also, the study examined the relationship between the parental involvement practice of completing interactive home-learning assignments and the reading comprehension achievement of first grade students. A total of 146 students and their parents/caregivers representing a convenience sample of eight first grade classes participated in the study. Four classes (n=74) were selected as the experimental group and four classes (n=72) served as the control group. . There were 72 girls in the sample and 74 boys and the median age was 6 years 6 months. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design utilizing eight existing first grade classes. It examined the effects of a home-learning support intervention program on the perceived efficacy levels of the participating parents/care¬givers, as measured by the Parent Perceptions of Parent Efficacy Scale (Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler, & Brissie, 1992) administered on a pre/post basis. The amount and type of parent involvement in the completion of home assignments was determined by means of a locally developed instrument, the H.E.L.P. Parent Involvement Home-learning Scale, administered on a pre/post basis. Student achievement in reading comprehension was measured via the reading subtest of the Brigance, CIB-S pre and post. The elementary students and their parents/caregivers participated in an interactive home-learning intervention program for 12 weeks that required parent/caregiver assistance. Results revealed the experimental group of parents/caregivers had a significant increase in their levels of perceived self-efficacy, p<.001, from the pre to post, and also had significantly increased levels of parental involvement in seven home-learning activities, p<.001, than the control group parents/caregivers. The experimental group students demonstrated significantly higher reading levels than the control group students, p<.001. This study provided evidence that interactive home-learning activities improved the levels of parental self-efficacy and parental involvement in home-learning activities, and improved the reading comprehension of the experimental group in comparison to the control.

No description available.

This study was conducted to determine if a significant difference existed based on the reading achievement of 3rd grade students as measured by the Mississippi Curriculum Test Reading Scaled Score of those students who utilized the Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader Software Management Program and those who did not participate in the program. The impact of gender and ethnicity on reading achievement and the relationship between the STAR Test for Assessment of Reading and the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT) as measures of reading achievement were also studied. The findings indicate students who participated in the Accelerated Reading Program achieved significantly higher reading scores than students who did not participate in the program. Within the Accelerated Reading Group, Caucasians earned significantly higher scores than the African-American/Other group. Female participants scored significantly higher scores than males. There was a strong association between the scores students on the STAR Test for Reading Assessment and the Mississippi Curriculum Test. The findings of this study indicated that gender, ethnicity, and the Accelerated Reading Program impacted MCT scores. There existed a strong association between scores on the Mississippi Curriculum Test and the scores on the STAR Test for Reading Assessment. Conclusions that emerged from the study suggest that Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader software when used in conjunction with the regular reading series seemed to have a positive impact on reading achievement. Recommendations for future research include investigating a possible gender bias in literature that could impact reading achievement and the impact of ethnicity on reading achievement.

The purpose of this study was to identify reading achievement of pupils assigned to the reading clinic and analyze and compare this achievement by grade levels with levels of intelligence. More specifically, the investigation attempted to determine: 1. The grade level at which the reading clinic was most effective; 2. The intelligence level at which the reading clinic was most effective; 3. The statistical significance of the variation in group intelligence test IQ's; and 4. The correlation between group intelligence test IQ's and total reading achievement.

No description available.

At-risk and special education students in the 7th and 8th grades in a rural middle school in western Alabama, in the years following the introduction of the No Child Left Behind federal legislation in 2002, failed to achieve adequate yearly progress in reading. School districts are increasingly implementing flexible computer-based intervention programs to improve their students' reading achievement. Using a between-group design, the purpose of this study was to determine whether NovaNET, a newly adopted reading intervention program, enhanced the reading attainment of at-risk and special education students. Guided by constructivist theory, archived reading achievement data from the 2009-2013 Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test were analyzed for 3 consecutive cohorts of special education and at-risk students who did (n = 76) or did not (n = 73) participate in the NovaNET program. With dependent variables of reading achievement at the end of 7th and 8th grade, with independent variables of experimental-control group, gender, and general-special education status, and a covariate of reading achievement at the end of 6th grade, a multivariate analysis of covariance indicated a significant main effect associated with participation in the program (F = 4.13, df = 2, p < .02), whereas significant higher-order interaction effects pointed to differential program benefits for specific subgroups of students. Although overall effect sizes were small to modest, the results indicated that NovaNET can increase educational attainment for at-risk and special education students who are struggling with reading. This study may contribute to positive social change by providing educators with scientific data about a flexible, technology-enhanced program to promote reading instruction and achievement for at-risk general education and special-education students entering middle school.

This study examined the unique contributions of morphological awareness and phonological recoding to word decoding, reading comprehension, and reading vocabulary for 197 Spanish-speaking English language learners enrolled in the fifth grade. The study also explored the contribution of phonological recoding, measured by accuracy on a pseudo-word decoding task, to the prediction of the same components of reading achievement. Specifically the study explored whether the contribution of phonological recoding changed when morphological awareness and oral vocabulary (a mediator of reading achievement) were added as predictors. To examine unique contributions, morphological awareness was separated from phonological and orthographic confounds present in opaque morphological relationships by using structural equation modeling to construct a latent variable stemming from the shared variance of four morphological tasks with different levels of morphological transparency, and therefore different phonological and orthographic processing demands. A latent variable of phonological recoding was also created. Findings indicated that when controlling for phonological recoding, morphological awareness made a significant and meaningful contribution to passage comprehension and reading vocabulary, but not word decoding with oral vocabulary acting as a significant mediator of this relationship. The study also found that phonological recoding was a significant predictor of each reading outcome when morphological awareness was not included as a predictor, but only significantly predicted word reading when controlling for morphological awareness. Significance of these findings to research and the need for additional morphological instruction within educational settings are discussed.