Date of Award
4-1-1989
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
Dr. Joan Horn
Keywords
academic failure, achievement, elementary education, elementary school students, failure factors, grade 2, high risk students, low achievement, prediction, predictive measurement, predictor variables, primary education, reading ability, reading instruction, underachievement
Abstract
In order to identify students at risk of failure in reading, a list was compiled in the school of factors held in common by students who had previously been retained in second grade. Cumulative folders were examined in order to gather the necessary data. At least 80 percent of the students in this part of the study were male, did not live with both parents, had failed the reading comprehension section of a local first grade minimum level skills test, and had visual sequential memory deficits. Other contributing factors were also identified. Using these factors, the records of 60 students who were in second grade and were in below-grade level or low-average reading groups were examined. On the basis of the presence of several predictive factors, students were labeled "at-risk" of failure in reading for the purposes of the project.
When reading grades at the end of the second nine weeks were compared with the prediction, most of those whose grades were unsatisfactory had been correctly labeled "at-risk.” However, a higher than desired rate of false prediction of failure did occur. It appeared that, for a number of students, success depended upon the absence of an auditory or visual sequential memory deficit. The appendix includes student data gathered in this study.