Teachers in Nevada have faced the problem of providing consistent, effective literacy instruction to elementary students, which impacts overall student achievement; only 48.3% of students in Clark County, Nevada were proficient in English Language Arts (ELA) in the 2018-2019 school year. This problem was explored from a case study perspective…

Perennial poor performance in English language in public examinations has been linked to the proliferation of social media tools in the classroom. However, contrary to the general belief that social media hinders learning and distracts learners' attention, this study attempted to improve the quality of instruction through social media-supported…

This research aimed to find out the effect of Scaffolded Voluntary Reading (SVR) as a special treatment to cope with reading crisis that cannot be solved simply by reading comprehension courses in formal curriculum. Comprehension scaffolding is normally implemented in class as a strategy but in this research, it is transformed into Self-Checking…

"Learning A-Z" contracted with Empirical Education to study the effectiveness of "Raz-Plus" in Milwaukee Public Schools during the 2016-17 school year. "Raz-Plus" is a literacy program that includes leveled books, skills practice, and digital activities and assessments. This study focused on 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade…

New technologies have had a large and transformative impact on education. This study explored the benefits of a comprehensive, computer-adaptive reading program for the literacy skills of young learners. Second grade students enrolled in a public school district used a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program and were evaluated at the beginning…

Following the recommendations of a 2013 instructional audit, the Academically or Intellectually Gifted department implemented a co-teaching instructional strategy in 41 volunteer schools starting in the 2014-15 school year. Implementation data and discussions with central office staff suggest that while implementation fidelity was relatively…

The location of this study is Bulldog Elementary School (BES) (pseudonym) in Suburban School District (SSD) (pseudonym). According to the Read to Succeed Act (2016), students must read on grade level by the end of third grade. Therefore, the students reading achievement level is the problem of practice. This action research study describes the…

In February 2016, the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) pulled together stakeholders from across the state and set an ambitious goal--that at least 75 percent of third graders would be proficient readers by 2025. The goal originated from both stagnant third grade reading scores in the state and national research indicating that third grade…

Reading is an essential part of our society. With the growing accountability within school districts and the quality of education changing, it is important to ensure that we are ensuring our students are meeting the mandated state Common Core Standards and teachers are ensuring that they are responsive to students' needs. This is a mixed methods…

The objectives of this study are to see if Reciprocal Teaching (RT) is more a effective Language Learning Strategy (LLS) to teach reading comprehension, and to see if students of high reading comprehension achievement have better reading comprehension than those of moderate and low reading comprehension achievement. The 3 x 2 factorial design is…

This study examined the effectiveness of the intensive implementation of a multicomponent reading intervention (Voyager Passport) with 306 fourth grade students with severe reading difficulties. Students with reading comprehension achievement below the 15%ile in the fall of fourth grade were randomly assigned to the intensive intervention or to…

Up until 2020, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scores had increased only slightly since the early 1990s with large achievement gaps for students of color and students living in poverty. Modest gains in fourth grade reading proficiency since 1992 were erased during the pandemic. The insufficient progress in reading even…

This case study retrospectively reflects on a self-contained teacher's decision to pair publisher-created adapted text with audio support as part of a multicomponent reading intervention. She evolved from creating her own adapted text to implementing publisher-created adapted text throughout a school year. The study analyzed students' reading…

We used survey and administrative data from Washington State to assess the degree to which special education teacher preparation, district literacy instructional practices, and the alignment between preparation and practice were associated with the reading test score gains of students with high-incidence disabilities taught by early-career special…

Using administrative data from D.C. Public Schools, I use exogenous variation in the presence and intensity of teacher monitoring to show it significantly improves student test scores and reduces suspensions. Uniquely, my setting allows me to separately identify the effect of pre-evaluation monitoring from post-evaluation feedback. Monitoring's…