Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Sandra Duncan

Committee Member

Harwick Smith Johnson, Jr

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Keywords

academic achievement, Beacon Early Years, cohort comparison, comprehension, decoding, DRC Beacon, empirical evidence, explicit phonics instruction, foundational subdomain, Grade 1, instructional leadership, language growth, longitudinal study, phonics instruction, quasi experimental design, reading, reading assessment, reading performance, second-grade students, Simple View of Reading, standardized reading assessments, student achievement, UFLI, UFLI Foundations, United States, year-end assessment results

Abstract

There is mixed empirical evidence that infusion of phonics instruction yields consistent gains on standardized reading assessments, particularly beyond Grade 1. This inconsistency in evidence is problematic for instructional leaders who do not have clear guidance on how much phonics is needed to improve the persistent problem of many students not achieving at grade level on standardized reading assessments. The purpose of this study was to examine potential differences in academic achievement by comparing two cohorts end-of-year Beacon Early Years assessment results at the target school. Specifically, this study compares one cohort of second-grade students who received explicit phonics instruction and one cohort of second-grade students who did not receive explicit phonics instruction to examine how phonic instruction influences student end of year performance on the reading assessment. Reading scores have declined across the United States (Lewis et al., 2021). Students are performing below the proficiency level because they have not acquired the necessary decoding and comprehension skills (Dilgard et al., 2022).

The Simple View of Reading was primarily used as a framework for how students learn to read. Students need to be provided with explicit instruction phonics instruction, so they become efficient decoders, so they are better able to comprehend what they read. The researcher implemented the UFLI phonics program into the reading block for 30 minutes, five days a week. This program is planned and purposely sequenced that is quick moving, incorporating manipulatives and reinforcing new and previously taught concepts. This study examined the difference in DRC Beacon Early Years Reading assessment scores between second-grade students who received explicit phonics instruction and the cohort that did not. This study also evaluated the extent to which growth in Beacon Early Years reading assessment subdomain scores differed between the two student cohorts.

An analysis of the data revealed that there was no significant difference between the 2024 and the 2025 cohorts in their overall performance on the Beacon reading assessment. The 2025 cohort scored higher on the foundational subdomain but there was not a significant difference between the two cohorts. The 2024 cohort did score significantly higher than the 2025 cohort in language growth. Future research should conduct a longitudinal study from kindergarten through second-grade to evaluate the long-term impact of UFLI Foundations explicit phonics instruction on students’ reading performance over time.

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