Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
T. Olin Huffman
Committee Member
Carolyn S. Buckenmaier
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
alternative schools, computer-assisted instruction, Fulton County, Georgia, high schools, intelligent tutoring systems, junior high schools, middle schools, parental involvement, Pearson Education, reading achievement, reading deficiencies, reading instruction, reading performance, school curriculum, staff development, SuccessMaker, teacher training, technology integration in education, tutoring programs
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to improve the reading performance of students at an alternative school located in Fulton County, Georgia. At least 80% of the students who enrolled at the alternative school had reading deficiencies and left with no significant gains in reading as evidenced by school data for the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 school years.
After a careful review of the school’s curriculum, the writer who was relatively new to the school discovered that the teachers were not properly trained to teach reading nor did the school have a systematic reading program. Additionally, there was a lack of parental involvement at the school.
In order to improve the reading performance of the students at the alternative school, the writer ensured that teachers received staff development training in reading instruction, implemented the use of a computer-aided intelligent tutoring reading program called the SuccessMaker (Pearson Education, 2003b), and designed a parental involvement program. These interventions began in June 2003 and ended in February 2004.
At the conclusion of the action research study, there were academic gains in reading ranging from 1.2 to 1.8 for all grade levels. Staff development training for all teachers increased by 60% for formal training and 80% for informal training. The parental involvement at the school had increases ranging from 41% to 75%.