This study explored the relationships between teacher knowledge and first-grade reading outcomes in low-income schools. Three teacher knowledge measures were adapted to assess alphabetic principle knowledge, comprehensive language knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge. Student phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and reading comprehension outcomes were assessed using the DIBELS and SAT/10. Sixty-nine teachers and 1146 first-grade students in 15 low-income schools participated. Results showed a wide range of scores on the teacher knowledge assessments, indicating a need for some of the participant teachers to improve their knowledge. In addition, teacher knowledge was compared to student outcomes and the significance of these relationships was varied. For all three teacher knowledge tests, student outcomes in phonics were significantly related to initial student differences. Student outcomes in fluency were significantly related to initial student differences for teacher knowledge about the alphabetic principle and comprehensive language knowledge. Student outcomes in reading comprehension were significantly related to initial student differences for teacher comprehensive language and vocabulary knowledge. When controlled for initial student differences, there were significant positive relationships between teacher alphabetic principle knowledge and student comprehension and teacher vocabulary knowledge and student fluency, and a significant negative relationship between teacher vocabulary knowledge and student phonemic awareness. The relationships between teacher alphabetic principle and comprehensive language knowledge and student phonemic awareness were non significant. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Childhood Education, Reading, and
Disability Services in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: February 28, 2006. / Reading Outcomes, First-Grade, Low-Income Schools, Teacher Knowledge / Includes bibliographical references. / Carolyn L. Piazza, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joseph K. Torgesen, Outside Committee Member; Barbara C. Palmer, Committee Member; Richard Tate, Committee Member; Alysia D. Roehrig, Committee Member.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168812 |
Contributors | Duggar, Staci Walton (authoraut), Piazza, Carolyn L. (professor directing dissertation), Torgesen, Joseph K. (outside committee member), Palmer, Barbara C. (committee member), Tate, Richard (committee member), Roehrig, Alysia D. (committee member), Department of Childhood Education, Reading and Disability Services (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
Publisher | Florida State University |
Source Sets | Florida State University |
Language | English, English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Text, text |
Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
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