Date of Award
12-9-2009
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Carolyn Pearson
Abstract
Although substantial research has been conducted regarding the instruction of reading, students are still not reaching a desired level of reading competency (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). The Reading First program was established to address this dilemma. In order to examine the impact the Reading First method of teaching reading had on the schools in Arkansas, a population was identified and classified into four categories: funded Reading First and non-funded Reading First, and matched control groups for both funded and non-funded. These schools were followed for three years, first grade through the third grade year, by obtaining achievement data obtained from the Arkansas State Department of Education public website. A one-between one-within repeated measures MANOVA on Iowa's Test of Basic skills vocabulary, word analysis, and listening skills percentile rank scores was performed. Results revealed that Reading First schools did not do significantly better than other schools using different approaches to teach reading. Since the taxpayers who are paying for and the educators who are implementing the program do not yet know the impact of the Reading First program, it is critical that the results be made public in the state of Arkansas.
Recommended Citation
Vint, Gladys E., "An Exploratory Study of the Effect of Instruction on Student" (2009). Theses and Dissertations. 189.
https://research.ualr.edu/etd/189
