Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Pedro Hernandez
Committee Member
Paul Borthwick
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
african american students, archival data, assessment, classroom observations, coaching, collaboration, collegial coaching, comprehensive reading plan, district support, effective schools, elementary education, Florida, Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, formal training, Hispanic students, instructional leadership, learning communities, mentoring, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami Park Elementary School, modeling, parental involvement, professional development, reading instruction, reading leader, reading methodologies, Scholastic Reading Inventory, school administrators, school culture, staff development, state standards, student achievement, teacher education, teacher needs, teacher support manual, Title I, training programs, 4th-grade teachers
Abstract
During the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 school years, 97% of the teachers at Miami Park Elementary School were trained to implement a comprehensive reading plan in order to improve the percentage of poor African American and Hispanic students who met state standards in reading. Still, the 2001-2002 passing rate on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test at Miami Park Elementary School (26%) fell behind the rates of the district (48%) and the state (55%).
Title I teachers in this high-poverty, low-achieving school were trained, motivated, and supported by a comprehensive professional development plan that addressed the ongoing needs of the teachers and provided them with teaching practices that were based on effective schools, reading methodologies, and school culture research. This applied dissertation had a 3-pronged focus: (a) professional development on subject area instruction and culture, (b) administrative leadership, and (c) parental involvement.
Archival data were utilized to determine teachers’ and students’ needs before the intervention. Solution strategies included (a) ongoing collaboration with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools reading/language arts staff, the district’s Title I program, the Teacher Education Center, school administrators, the reading leader, and the 4th-grade teachers; (b) assessment of teacher and student needs in order to develop support strategies through collegial coaching, modeling, mentoring, sharing, and formal training conducted by the support staff; and (c) the development of a teacher support manual for possible duplication at other demographically similar low-achieving schools in the district.
As a result of this applied dissertation, student achievement improved on the Scholastic Reading Inventory and there was increased implementation of components of the Comprehensive Reading Plan as demonstrated by classroom observations and teachers’ survey responses.