This program evaluation studied Effective Behavioral and Instructional Support Systems (EBISS), a Response to Intervention (RTI) initiative focused at changing district leadership behaviors to close the policy-research-practice gap and improve students' reading outcomes at third grade. A pre/post quasi-experimental comparison using a matched group design evaluated the four-year initiative. EBISS districts (n = 25) were matched to non-EBISS districts n = 25) by important district variables of: (a) size (small, medium, and large) and (b) region (coast, central, east, south, and valley), (c) students receiving Free and Reduced Meals (FARM), (d) students who were white and non-white, (e) students who were male and female, (f) years of teacher's experience, and (g) third grade Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS) scores. The aim of this research was to answer two questions. The first asked whether the performance of students in non-EBISS and EBISS districts were significantly different when measured by their percent of students passing the third grade reading OAKS in 2006-07 (EBISS pre-treatment year) and 2010-11 (EBISS post-treatment year). The second question analyzed whether EBISS districts with high implementation scores made statistically significantly different gains from EBISS districts with low implementation scores on their percent of students who passed the third grade OAKS reading assessment from 2006-07 to 2012-11. The results of the first research question indicated no significant differences for group (p = .312) or time (p = .488) between EBISS and non-EBISS districts scores on the OAKS reading test at third grade. Similarly, the second research question results indicated no significant differences (p = .452) between EBISS districts with high and low implementation scores on the OAKS reading scores at third grade. Findings are discussed in relation to: (a) the challenge when measuring administrator effectiveness based on distal outcomes, (b) confounding variables that affected internal and external validity, and (c) how this study informs the future design of evaluation research, in the pre-implementation year of an initiative, so variables that are know to be effective in improving student outcomes can be replicated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uoregon.edu/oai:scholarsbank.uoregon.edu:1794/17927 |
| Date | 17 June 2014 |
| Creators | Ryan Jackson, Kathleen |
| Contributors | Kamata, Akihito |
| Publisher | University of Oregon |
| Source Sets | University of Oregon |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Rights | All Rights Reserved. |
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