Knowledge of the implementation practices of successful elementary schools will
be beneficial to other elementary principals who seek to improve student success in
reading. This study examined perceptions of principals from elementary schools in
Texas whose schools received the Gold Performance Acknowledgement (GPA) from
the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for Continuous Improvement in Reading (CIR)
on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) in 2002. The study had two
purposes: (1) to identify the principal??s perception of the levels of implementation
and impact of selected reading strategies used by selected elementary schools in
Texas to improve student success in reading and (2) to determine the principal??s
perception of the extent to which Accelerated Reader (AR) and AR-like recommend
practices were used in selected elementary schools in Texas.
The research design for this study was descriptive. Parameters, which are
descriptive measures of a population, were used since all 721 members of the
population were mailed questionnaires. Research was conducted during the winter of2004. Two hundred fifty-two principals responded. A questionnaire using a Likerttype
scale for the principals?? responses was used to collect the data. Principals??
perceptions were measured to determine the degree of implementation and impact of
AR and other selected reading strategies. Data were analyzed for all 252 respondents
for selected reading strategies and by the categories of AR and non-AR schools for
AR recommended reading strategies and AR-like recommended reading strategies,
respectively.
This study identified the characteristics of a successful reading program in Texas
elementary schools. To maximize their budgets while improving student success in
reading, principals should provide their teachers with professional development,
implement student/teacher conferences to direct reading practice, allow students to
self-select books on their independent reading level for independent reading practice,
consider use of literature circles, classroom libraries and reading textbooks, review
the use of rewards and posting of goals to determine if these practices increase
students?? success in reading, assess computer reading programs to determine if there
are less costly options available, and in schools using the AR program, review
implementation practices for greater impact.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2323 |
| Date | 29 August 2005 |
| Creators | Elmore, Olivia Carol |
| Contributors | Cole, Bryan R. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 3113101 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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