Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Gypsy Abbott
Committee Member
John Lustig
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
adult reading programs, bilingual education, curriculum development, elementary schools, English as a second language, English curriculum, first grade, low reading scores, Nur Ul Islam Academy, parent involvement, parental support, phonemics, phonetics, professional development, reading achievement, reading intervention, reading performance, reading programs, reading tests, SAT-9, second grade, Stanford Achievement Test Ninth Edition, student achievement, teacher training, test score decline, vocabulary development
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to help increase first grade and second grade lowreading scores on the Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth edition (SAT-9) at Nur Ul Islam Academy (NUIA), and how these low-reading scores have caused multiple concerns for those in the community. At NUIA, the student body is comprised primarily of students who are bilingual or whose parents are bilingual. As a result, a majority of the concerns of parents and teachers are directed to the students’ proficiency or lack of proficiency in basic English language skills. Planned intervention strategies were applied to effectively implement teaching strategies to assist with students and parents who were lacking in the basic English skills needed to increase SAT-9 reading scores.
The writer developed an action plan to address the low-reading scores of NUIA’s students who had scored below set standards on the SAT-9. This plan included the need for strengthening parents’ confidence surrounding NUIA’s ability to teach, conducting review courses on teaching basic English skills, and increasing parental support for student learning. The experimental group for this controlled study consisted of students and their parents who were unable to communicate effectively in the English language as well as teachers from NUIA. The teachers were given the task of reevaluating the current English curriculum and to expand on the areas of phonemics and phonetics to stimulate critical thinking. Furthermore, a reading program was implemented to ensure that parents were supporting the needed reading achievement for their children at home.
An analysis of the data combined with the implementation of a new English curriculum and other improvements in the area of reading concluded that the intervention program was successful. There was an overall improvement in students’ reading performance with showed increases on the reading portion of the SAT-9.