Dissertations

Date of Award

5-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

Advisor

Dr. Michael Brooks

Abstract

This research project was intended to provide further insight into the impact of the methodologies utilized in the Arkansas Adolescent Literacy Intervention (AALI) on student achievement and teachers‘ practices. The purpose of this study was to determine by gender the effects of classes whose teachers utilized the Content Enhancement Routines versus classes whose teachers did not utilize the Routines on literacy achievement for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in three regions of Arkansas. In addition, another purpose of this study was to determine how teachers feel about using the routines in their classrooms and how effective they felt the professional development process was for educators involved in the training of Content Enhancement Routines through the AALI in three regions of Arkansas.

The study was conducted in schools representing the southeastern, central, and northeastern regions of Arkansas. Literacy scaled scores from the 2010 Arkansas Benchmark Examination were utilized to measure literacy achievement, and the Content Enhancement Routines Outcome Survey was used to measure teachers‘ perceptions of the intervention.

The sample for this study included two groups of participants, students and teachers. In each grade, a group of students received Content Enhancement Routines instruction from a classroom teacher who had participated in the intervention while the other group of students from each grade level had not received any Content Enhancement Routine instruction from their classroom teachers. For the second sample, the researcher elicited responses from members of the AALI at each participating school site that participated in the training. The participants considered for this study had been involved in the AALI for at least one year and were present educators in Arkansas schools teaching from grades 4-12.

To address the three hypotheses, a 2 x 2 factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted for each using condition by gender as the independent variables and the overall literacy achievement as the dependent variable for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, respectively. The researcher utilized descriptive statistics to address the research question regarding attitudes toward the Content Enrichment Routines training professional development process through the Strategic Instruction Model in Arkansas.

The results of this study showed no significant interaction effects between type of instruction and gender for the three hypotheses. However, the teacher responses on the Content Enrichment Routines Teacher Outcomes Survey indicated teachers were highly satisfied with their use of the routines, felt the routines had positively impacted their students‘ learning, and reported system-level supports were in place for their participation in the intervention.

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