The purpose of this quantitative, comparative study was to examine if and to what extent, there are statistically significant differences in decoding and oral reading fluency scores between at-risk Title I students who receive multisensory phonics-based instruction in first grade and those who do not in the Western United States. Paivio's dual…

Struggling readers are likely to face life-long challenges in achieving success in school and life as a result of their struggles with reading (Armbruster et al., 2001; Arnold, 2010; Hernandez, 2011). Third-grade students with reading disabilities are an exceptionally critical group who may experience enhanced risk during the year that the focus…

The problem addressed in this study was that at risk readers lack the prior background knowledge in order to allow reading comprehension to take place. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental case study was to analyze if the use of developing and building background knowledge and experience assisted at-risk readers in reading…

Students learning to read in more than one language, or emerging biliterates, are becoming increasingly common in schools. Early screening and identification of reading difficulties may lead to better outcomes for emerging biliterates as well as monolingual English students. Oral reading fluency (ORF) is one tool shown to be both a reliable…

Seventy-five percent of third grade students who are at-risk will continue to struggle with reading through the years into adulthood, never to recover their potential reading development. Once less-skilled third grade readers reach ninth grade, one in six students are four times more likely to leave high school before receiving a diploma than…

The current study evaluated the effects of short-term, structured teacher training in Active Reading on student outcomes in listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Active Reading is an approach to whole group read aloud that incorporates interactive shared reading and rich vocabulary instruction. Participants included…

This study investigated the effectiveness of an early literacy program for first grade students classified as at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders, who were nonresponsive to previous schoolwide interventions, and who performed in the bottom one-third of their class on a standardized reading assessment. This study, which consisted of a…

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to investigate the impact of a repeated reading fluency intervention focused on prosody, counterbalanced with an intervention focused on reading strategies. Both of these interventions were designed to promote feelings of achievement through participation in activities intended to…

Over thirty years of extant literature exists regarding reading instruction, yet consensus in the field continues to diverge in the area of reading intervention. Despite the establishment of research-based programs in all five areas of reading (phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension), educators continue to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a computer-based multimedia software program on the oral reading fluency of at risk second-grade learners. The study determined if a cause-effect relationship existed between one factor, "the independent variable" and a second factor, the dependent variable. A Two-way…

Reading comprehension is a critical aspect of the reading process. Children who experience significant problems in reading comprehension are at risk for long-term academic and social problems. High-quality measures are needed for early, efficient, and effective identification of children in need of remediation in reading comprehension. Substantial…

A student's economic status can have a significant impact on reading achievement. Students classified as low-socioeconomic-status (low-SES) have been traditionally at risk for reading failure. With the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) schools are required to use strategies and practices that have evidence supporting their effectiveness in…

In today's digital world the Internet is becoming an increasingly predominant resource for science information, rapidly eclipsing the traditional science textbook in content area classrooms (Lawless & Schrader, 2008). The shift challenges researchers, educators, administrators, and policy makers to reconsider what it means to read and…

This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design to investigate the impact of parent development on rising third graders' summer reading losses as measured by the difference in May and August oral reading fluency scores. Title I parents and students from three schools in a rural North Carolina school district participated in a…

Reading is the most valuable skill children must master early in schooling. Unfortunately, many students struggle to read and may be identified as having a Reading Disability (RD). In this dissertation, I explored the usefulness of the Response-to-Intervention (RtI) framework for identifying children with RD by examining the use of 1st and 2nd…